Overall
- Cape Girardeau
- 86.1
Diff -0.2 RPP
Cape Girardeau vs McAllen-Edinburg-Mission
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission is 0.2% less expensive than Cape Girardeau.
0.2% less expensive
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX is 0.2% less expensive than Cape Girardeau, MO-IL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.9 vs 86.1). A $100,000 salary in Cape Girardeau buys about the same as $99,787 in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 86.1 (Cape Girardeau) vs 85.9 (McAllen-Edinburg-Mission)
- $100k in Cape Girardeau ≈ $99,787 purchasing power in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission
- Services drives the gap (-4.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MO:TX 86.1→85.9
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MO × TX
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission
85.9
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services leads the difference, with McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 4.4 points lower than Cape Girardeau. 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.
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 $99,787 in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, 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 -4.4 RPP
Rents
- Cape Girardeau
- 56.4
Diff -0.5 RPP
| Category | Cape Girardeau | McAllen-Edinburg-Mission | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 86.1 | 85.9 | -0.2 |
| Goods | 94.2 | 93.8 | -0.5 |
| Services | 85.6 | 81.2 | -4.4 |
| Rents | 56.4 | 55.9 | -0.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Cape Girardeau 86.1
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 85.9
Goods
Cape Girardeau 94.2
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 93.8
Services
Cape Girardeau 85.6
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 81.2
Rents
Cape Girardeau 56.4
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 55.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Cape Girardeau and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.6 to 0.2 RPP points. Cape Girardeau remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 30.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (26.0 to 4.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Cape Girardeau RPP | McAllen-Edinburg-Mission RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 81.3 | 86.9 | 5.6 points McAllen-Edinburg-Mission higher |
| 2012 | 88.5 | 89.2 | 0.6 points McAllen-Edinburg-Mission higher |
| 2016 | 86.1 | 89.8 | 3.7 points McAllen-Edinburg-Mission higher |
| 2020 | 88.9 | 88.0 | 0.8 points Cape Girardeau higher |
| 2024 | 86.1 | 85.9 | 0.2 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 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission for the same purchasing power:
| In Cape Girardeau | In McAllen-Edinburg-Mission | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,894 | $-106 |
| $75,000 | $74,841 | $-159 |
| $100,000 | $99,787 | $-213 |
| $150,000 | $149,681 | $-319 |
$ in Cape Girardeau = in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (86.1 → 85.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is McAllen-Edinburg-Mission more expensive than Cape Girardeau?
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission is 0.2% less expensive than Cape Girardeau. The overall cost index is 85.9 vs 86.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission equals $100K in Cape Girardeau?
A $100,000 salary in Cape Girardeau has the same purchasing power as $99,787 in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Cape Girardeau and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission?
Rents in Cape Girardeau are indexed at 56.4 while McAllen-Edinburg-Mission is at 55.9 (national average = 100). Cape Girardeau 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.