Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
Diff +2.5 RPP
Boise City vs Salt Lake City-Murray
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.5% more expensive than Boise City.
2.5% more expensive
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.5% more expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.9 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $102,518 in Salt Lake City-Murray; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $102,518 purchasing power in Salt Lake City-Murray
- Rents drives the gap (+17.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:UT 98.4→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE ID × UT
- RENT-LED Rent-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
Instrument codes from this pair's BEA Regional Price Parities (overall · goods · services · rents · national benchmark 100 · purchasing-power conversion), not a ranking or recommendation.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Salt Lake City-Murray for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,259 | +$1,259 |
| $75,000 | $76,888 | +$1,888 |
| $100,000 | $102,518 | +$2,518 |
| $150,000 | $153,776 | +$3,776 |
$ in Boise City = in Salt Lake City-Murray
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 100.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.5% more expensive than Boise City, ID, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salt Lake City-Murray is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Rents leads the difference, with Salt Lake City-Murray 17.7 points higher than Boise City. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
For a housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Boise City corresponds to $102,518 in Salt Lake City-Murray.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff +0.3 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff +8.3 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
Diff +17.7 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 100.9 | +2.5 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.4 | +0.3 |
| Services | 70.7 | 79.0 | +8.3 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 123.3 | +17.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Services
Boise City 70.7
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
How the Price Gap Changed
Boise City and Salt Lake City-Murray share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 3.2 to 2.5 RPP points. Salt Lake City-Murray remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 7.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.0 to 8.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Boise City RPP | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.3 | 98.5 | 3.2 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2012 | 96.7 | 102.2 | 5.5 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 93.2 | 98.3 | 5.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2020 | 93.6 | 97.3 | 3.6 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 100.9 | 2.5 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Salt Lake City-Murray more expensive than Boise City?
Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.5% more expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 100.9 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Salt Lake City-Murray equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $102,518 in Salt Lake City-Murray. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Salt Lake City-Murray?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Salt Lake City-Murray is at 123.3 (national average = 100). Salt Lake City-Murray has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.