Overall
- Cape Girardeau
- 86.1
Diff -0.1 RPP
Cape Girardeau vs Brownsville-Harlingen
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.1% less expensive than Cape Girardeau.
0.1% less expensive
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX is 0.1% less expensive than Cape Girardeau, MO-IL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 86.0 vs 86.1). A $100,000 salary in Cape Girardeau buys about the same as $99,880 in Brownsville-Harlingen; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 86.1 (Cape Girardeau) vs 86.0 (Brownsville-Harlingen)
- $100k in Cape Girardeau ≈ $99,880 purchasing power in Brownsville-Harlingen
- Services drives the gap (-4.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MO:TX 86.1→86.0
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MO × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- PP-PAR PP near-par
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.
Cape Girardeau
86.1
Cost Index
Brownsville-Harlingen
86.0
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL and Brownsville-Harlingen, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Brownsville-Harlingen is 4.5 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
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 Cape Girardeau to $99,880 in Brownsville-Harlingen, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Cape Girardeau
- 94.2
Diff -0.5 RPP
Services
- Cape Girardeau
- 85.6
Diff -4.5 RPP
Rents
- Cape Girardeau
- 56.4
Diff +1.3 RPP
| Category | Cape Girardeau | Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 86.1 | 86.0 | -0.1 |
| Goods | 94.2 | 93.8 | -0.5 |
| Services | 85.6 | 81.2 | -4.5 |
| Rents | 56.4 | 57.7 | +1.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Cape Girardeau 86.1
Brownsville-Harlingen 86.0
Goods
Cape Girardeau 94.2
Brownsville-Harlingen 93.8
Services
Cape Girardeau 85.6
Brownsville-Harlingen 81.2
Rents
Cape Girardeau 56.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 57.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Cape Girardeau and Brownsville-Harlingen share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.8 to 0.1 RPP points. Cape Girardeau remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 29.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (25.4 to 4.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Cape Girardeau RPP | Brownsville-Harlingen RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 81.3 | 85.0 | 3.8 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2012 | 88.5 | 89.2 | 0.7 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2016 | 86.1 | 89.5 | 3.4 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2020 | 88.9 | 85.0 | 3.8 points Cape Girardeau higher |
| 2024 | 86.1 | 86.0 | 0.1 points Cape Girardeau 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Cape Girardeau would need to be in Brownsville-Harlingen for the same purchasing power:
| In Cape Girardeau | In Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,940 | $-60 |
| $75,000 | $74,910 | $-90 |
| $100,000 | $99,880 | $-120 |
| $150,000 | $149,821 | $-179 |
$ in Cape Girardeau = in Brownsville-Harlingen
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (86.1 → 86.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brownsville-Harlingen more expensive than Cape Girardeau?
Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.1% less expensive than Cape Girardeau. The overall cost index is 86.0 vs 86.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Brownsville-Harlingen equals $100K in Cape Girardeau?
A $100,000 salary in Cape Girardeau has the same purchasing power as $99,880 in Brownsville-Harlingen. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Cape Girardeau and Brownsville-Harlingen?
Rents in Cape Girardeau are indexed at 56.4 while Brownsville-Harlingen is at 57.7 (national average = 100). Brownsville-Harlingen 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.