Overall
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff -6.2 RPP
Fairbanks-College vs Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin is 6% less expensive than Fairbanks-College.
6% less expensive
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL is 6% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.0 vs 103.2). A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College buys about the same as $94,015 in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.2 (Fairbanks-College) vs 97.0 (Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin)
- $100k in Fairbanks-College ≈ $94,015 purchasing power in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin
- Services drives the gap (-30.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:FL 103.2→97.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AK × FL
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff -11.1 RPP
Services
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff -30.7 RPP
Rents
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff +2.4 RPP
| Category | Fairbanks-College | Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.2 | 97.0 | -6.2 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 96.2 | -11.1 |
| Services | 119.8 | 89.0 | -30.7 |
| Rents | 92.6 | 94.9 | +2.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 97.0
Goods
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 96.2
Services
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 89.0
Rents
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 94.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin is 30.7 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL is 6% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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 Fairbanks-College to $94,015 in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin
97.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Fairbanks-College would need to be in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin for the same purchasing power:
| In Fairbanks-College | In Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,007 | $-2,993 |
| $75,000 | $70,511 | $-4,489 |
| $100,000 | $94,015 | $-5,985 |
| $150,000 | $141,022 | $-8,978 |
$ in Fairbanks-College = in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.2 → 97.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Fairbanks-College and Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.9 to 6.2 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 34.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (32.0 to 2.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Fairbanks-College RPP | Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 104.7 | 95.8 | 8.9 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 98.0 | 0.0 points Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin higher |
| 2016 | 100.4 | 96.8 | 3.6 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 99.4 | 94.9 | 4.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 103.2 | 97.0 | 6.2 points Fairbanks-College 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin more expensive than Fairbanks-College?
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin is 6% less expensive than Fairbanks-College. The overall cost index is 97.0 vs 103.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin equals $100K in Fairbanks-College?
A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College has the same purchasing power as $94,015 in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fairbanks-College and Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin?
Rents in Fairbanks-College are indexed at 92.6 while Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin is at 94.9 (national average = 100). Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 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.