Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 103.9
Diff +5.5 RPP
Boise City vs Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is 5.6% more expensive than Boise City.
5.6% more expensive
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA is 5.6% more expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.9 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $105,553 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 103.9 (Wenatchee-East Wenatchee)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $105,553 purchasing power in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- Services drives the gap (+29.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:WA 98.4→103.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE ID × WA
- SERVICES-LED Services-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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA is 5.6% more expensive than Boise City, ID, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 29.9 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Boise City to $105,553 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Boise City and Wenatchee-East Wenatchee share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 2.6 to 5.5 RPP points. Wenatchee-East Wenatchee remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 34.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (4.1 to 29.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Boise City RPP | Wenatchee-East Wenatchee RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.3 | 97.8 | 2.6 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2012 | 96.7 | 97.0 | 0.3 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2016 | 93.2 | 97.6 | 4.5 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2020 | 93.6 | 102.4 | 8.7 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 103.9 | 5.5 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 105.0
Diff +8.8 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 100.6
Diff +29.9 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 115.0
Diff +9.4 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Wenatchee-East Wenatchee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 103.9 | +5.5 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 105.0 | +8.8 |
| Services | 70.7 | 100.6 | +29.9 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 115.0 | +9.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 103.9
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 105.0
Services
Boise City 70.7
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 100.6
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 115.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Wenatchee-East Wenatchee | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,777 | +$2,777 |
| $75,000 | $79,165 | +$4,165 |
| $100,000 | $105,553 | +$5,553 |
| $150,000 | $158,330 | +$8,330 |
$ in Boise City = in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 103.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
103.9
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wenatchee-East Wenatchee more expensive than Boise City?
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is 5.6% more expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 103.9 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $105,553 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Wenatchee-East Wenatchee?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is at 115.0 (national average = 100). Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 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.