Overall
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers
- 102.3
Diff +1.4 RPP
Charleston-North Charleston vs Cape Coral-Fort Myers
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Cape Coral-Fort Myers is 1.4% more expensive than Charleston-North Charleston.
1.4% more expensive
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL is 1.4% more expensive than Charleston-North Charleston, SC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 102.3 vs 101.0). A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston buys about the same as $101,374 in Cape Coral-Fort Myers; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 101.0 (Charleston-North Charleston) vs 102.3 (Cape Coral-Fort Myers)
- $100k in Charleston-North Charleston ≈ $101,374 purchasing power in Cape Coral-Fort Myers
- Rents drives the gap (+5.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair SC:FL 101.0→102.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE SC × FL
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-ABOVE Both above 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.
Charleston-North Charleston
101.0
Cost Index
Cape Coral-Fort Myers
102.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Charleston-North Charleston, SC and Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Rents creates the largest separation: Cape Coral-Fort Myers is 5.3 points higher. But services and goods 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 exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.
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 Charleston-North Charleston corresponds to $101,374 in Cape Coral-Fort Myers.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -0.1 RPP
Services
Diff -1.3 RPP
Rents
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers
- 125.1
Diff +5.3 RPP
| Category | Charleston-North Charleston | Cape Coral-Fort Myers | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 101.0 | 102.3 | +1.4 |
| Goods | 96.3 | 96.2 | -0.1 |
| Services | 88.2 | 86.9 | -1.3 |
| Rents | 119.8 | 125.1 | +5.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Charleston-North Charleston 101.0
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 102.3
Goods
Charleston-North Charleston 96.3
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 96.2
Services
Charleston-North Charleston 88.2
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 86.9
Rents
Charleston-North Charleston 119.8
Cape Coral-Fort Myers 125.1
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Charleston-North Charleston and Cape Coral-Fort Myers share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 2.5 to 1.4 RPP points. Cape Coral-Fort Myers remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 9.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (8.3 to 1.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Charleston-North Charleston RPP | Cape Coral-Fort Myers RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.4 | 99.9 | 2.5 points Cape Coral-Fort Myers higher |
| 2012 | 100.3 | 97.9 | 2.5 points Charleston-North Charleston higher |
| 2016 | 99.7 | 101.0 | 1.3 points Cape Coral-Fort Myers higher |
| 2020 | 98.0 | 98.1 | 0.1 points Cape Coral-Fort Myers higher |
| 2024 | 101.0 | 102.3 | 1.4 points Cape Coral-Fort Myers 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 Charleston-North Charleston would need to be in Cape Coral-Fort Myers for the same purchasing power:
| In Charleston-North Charleston | In Cape Coral-Fort Myers | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,687 | +$687 |
| $75,000 | $76,030 | +$1,030 |
| $100,000 | $101,374 | +$1,374 |
| $150,000 | $152,061 | +$2,061 |
$ in Charleston-North Charleston = in Cape Coral-Fort Myers
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (101.0 → 102.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cape Coral-Fort Myers more expensive than Charleston-North Charleston?
Cape Coral-Fort Myers is 1.4% more expensive than Charleston-North Charleston. The overall cost index is 102.3 vs 101.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Cape Coral-Fort Myers equals $100K in Charleston-North Charleston?
A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston has the same purchasing power as $101,374 in Cape Coral-Fort Myers. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Charleston-North Charleston and Cape Coral-Fort Myers?
Rents in Charleston-North Charleston are indexed at 119.8 while Cape Coral-Fort Myers is at 125.1 (national average = 100). Cape Coral-Fort Myers 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.