Overall
- Iowa City
- 91.5
Diff +0.6 RPP
College Station-Bryan vs Iowa City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Iowa City is 0.6% more expensive than College Station-Bryan.
0.6% more expensive
Iowa City, IA is 0.6% more expensive than College Station-Bryan, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.5 vs 91.0). A $100,000 salary in College Station-Bryan buys about the same as $100,614 in Iowa City; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 91.0 (College Station-Bryan) vs 91.5 (Iowa City)
- $100k in College Station-Bryan ≈ $100,614 purchasing power in Iowa City
- Rents drives the gap (+8.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:IA 91.0→91.5
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE TX × IA
- 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.
College Station-Bryan
91.0
Cost Index
Iowa City
91.5
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
College Station-Bryan, TX and Iowa City, IA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.6 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Rents creates the largest separation: Iowa City is 8.9 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 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 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 College Station-Bryan corresponds to $100,614 in Iowa City.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Iowa City
- 93.7
Diff -0.0 RPP
Services
- Iowa City
- 83.7
Diff -0.7 RPP
Rents
- Iowa City
- 84.0
Diff +8.9 RPP
| Category | College Station-Bryan | Iowa City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 91.0 | 91.5 | +0.6 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 93.7 | -0.0 |
| Services | 84.4 | 83.7 | -0.7 |
| Rents | 75.1 | 84.0 | +8.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
College Station-Bryan 91.0
Iowa City 91.5
Goods
College Station-Bryan 93.8
Iowa City 93.7
Services
College Station-Bryan 84.4
Iowa City 83.7
Rents
College Station-Bryan 75.1
Iowa City 84.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
College Station-Bryan and Iowa City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.6 to 0.6 RPP points. Iowa City remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 8.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.4 to 0.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | College Station-Bryan RPP | Iowa City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.1 | 95.7 | 0.6 points Iowa City higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 96.5 | 0.0 points Iowa City higher |
| 2016 | 96.4 | 95.4 | 1.0 points College Station-Bryan higher |
| 2020 | 95.1 | 95.6 | 0.4 points Iowa City higher |
| 2024 | 91.0 | 91.5 | 0.6 points Iowa City 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 College Station-Bryan would need to be in Iowa City for the same purchasing power:
| In College Station-Bryan | In Iowa City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,307 | +$307 |
| $75,000 | $75,460 | +$460 |
| $100,000 | $100,614 | +$614 |
| $150,000 | $150,920 | +$920 |
$ in College Station-Bryan = in Iowa City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.0 → 91.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Iowa City more expensive than College Station-Bryan?
Iowa City is 0.6% more expensive than College Station-Bryan. The overall cost index is 91.5 vs 91.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Iowa City equals $100K in College Station-Bryan?
A $100,000 salary in College Station-Bryan has the same purchasing power as $100,614 in Iowa City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between College Station-Bryan and Iowa City?
Rents in College Station-Bryan are indexed at 75.1 while Iowa City is at 84.0 (national average = 100). Iowa City 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.