Overall
- El Paso
- 89.9
- Beaumont-Port Arthur
- 90.0
Diff +0.1 RPP
El Paso vs Beaumont-Port Arthur
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Beaumont-Port Arthur is 0.1% more expensive than El Paso.
0.1% more expensive
Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX is 0.1% more expensive than El Paso, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 90.0 vs 89.9). A $100,000 salary in El Paso buys about the same as $100,149 in Beaumont-Port Arthur; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 89.9 (El Paso) vs 90.0 (Beaumont-Port Arthur)
- $100k in El Paso ≈ $100,149 purchasing power in Beaumont-Port Arthur
- Services drives the gap (+0.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:TX 89.9→90.0
PHOTO-FINISH · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- SAME-STATE Same state · 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.
El Paso
89.9
Cost Index
Beaumont-Port Arthur
90.0
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
El Paso, TX and Beaumont-Port Arthur, 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: Beaumont-Port Arthur is 0.5 points higher. But rents 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in El Paso to $100,149 in Beaumont-Port Arthur, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- El Paso
- 93.8
- Beaumont-Port Arthur
- 93.8
Diff 0.0 RPP
Services
- El Paso
- 82.6
- Beaumont-Port Arthur
- 83.1
Diff +0.5 RPP
Rents
- El Paso
- 71.2
- Beaumont-Port Arthur
- 70.9
Diff -0.3 RPP
| Category | El Paso | Beaumont-Port Arthur | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 89.9 | 90.0 | +0.1 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 93.8 | 0.0 |
| Services | 82.6 | 83.1 | +0.5 |
| Rents | 71.2 | 70.9 | -0.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
El Paso 89.9
Beaumont-Port Arthur 90.0
Goods
El Paso 93.8
Beaumont-Port Arthur 93.8
Services
El Paso 82.6
Beaumont-Port Arthur 83.1
Rents
El Paso 71.2
Beaumont-Port Arthur 70.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
El Paso and Beaumont-Port Arthur share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.9 to 0.1 RPP points. Beaumont-Port Arthur remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 5.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (6.2 to 0.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | El Paso RPP | Beaumont-Port Arthur RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 92.5 | 93.4 | 0.9 points Beaumont-Port Arthur higher |
| 2012 | 95.6 | 93.3 | 2.2 points El Paso higher |
| 2016 | 95.2 | 94.8 | 0.4 points El Paso higher |
| 2020 | 92.7 | 90.1 | 2.6 points El Paso higher |
| 2024 | 89.9 | 90.0 | 0.1 points Beaumont-Port Arthur 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 El Paso would need to be in Beaumont-Port Arthur for the same purchasing power:
| In El Paso | In Beaumont-Port Arthur | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,075 | +$75 |
| $75,000 | $75,112 | +$112 |
| $100,000 | $100,149 | +$149 |
| $150,000 | $150,224 | +$224 |
$ in El Paso = in Beaumont-Port Arthur
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (89.9 → 90.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Beaumont-Port Arthur more expensive than El Paso?
Beaumont-Port Arthur is 0.1% more expensive than El Paso. The overall cost index is 90.0 vs 89.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Beaumont-Port Arthur equals $100K in El Paso?
A $100,000 salary in El Paso has the same purchasing power as $100,149 in Beaumont-Port Arthur. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between El Paso and Beaumont-Port Arthur?
Rents in El Paso are indexed at 71.2 while Beaumont-Port Arthur is at 70.9 (national average = 100). El Paso 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.