Overall
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
- Durham-Chapel Hill
- 97.6
Diff -5.6 RPP
Fairbanks-College vs Durham-Chapel Hill
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Durham-Chapel Hill is 5.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College.
5.5% less expensive
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC is 5.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.6 vs 103.2). A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College buys about the same as $94,539 in Durham-Chapel Hill; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.2 (Fairbanks-College) vs 97.6 (Durham-Chapel Hill)
- $100k in Fairbanks-College ≈ $94,539 purchasing power in Durham-Chapel Hill
- Services drives the gap (-30.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:NC 103.2→97.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AK × NC
- 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
- Durham-Chapel Hill
- 96.6
Diff -10.7 RPP
Services
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
- Durham-Chapel Hill
- 89.3
Diff -30.5 RPP
Rents
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
- Durham-Chapel Hill
- 98.9
Diff +6.4 RPP
| Category | Fairbanks-College | Durham-Chapel Hill | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.2 | 97.6 | -5.6 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 96.6 | -10.7 |
| Services | 119.8 | 89.3 | -30.5 |
| Rents | 92.6 | 98.9 | +6.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Durham-Chapel Hill 97.6
Goods
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Durham-Chapel Hill 96.6
Services
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Durham-Chapel Hill 89.3
Rents
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Durham-Chapel Hill 98.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Durham-Chapel Hill is 30.5 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC is 5.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Durham-Chapel Hill 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 $94,539 in Durham-Chapel Hill, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Durham-Chapel Hill
97.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Fairbanks-College would need to be in Durham-Chapel Hill for the same purchasing power:
| In Fairbanks-College | In Durham-Chapel Hill | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,270 | $-2,730 |
| $75,000 | $70,904 | $-4,096 |
| $100,000 | $94,539 | $-5,461 |
| $150,000 | $141,809 | $-8,191 |
$ in Fairbanks-College = in Durham-Chapel Hill
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.2 → 97.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Fairbanks-College and Durham-Chapel Hill share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.4 to 5.6 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 31.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (24.8 to 6.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Fairbanks-College RPP | Durham-Chapel Hill RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 104.7 | 97.3 | 7.4 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 96.7 | 1.3 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2016 | 100.4 | 97.5 | 2.9 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 99.4 | 94.8 | 4.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 103.2 | 97.6 | 5.6 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 Durham-Chapel Hill more expensive than Fairbanks-College?
Durham-Chapel Hill is 5.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College. The overall cost index is 97.6 vs 103.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Durham-Chapel Hill equals $100K in Fairbanks-College?
A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College has the same purchasing power as $94,539 in Durham-Chapel Hill. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fairbanks-College and Durham-Chapel Hill?
Rents in Fairbanks-College are indexed at 92.6 while Durham-Chapel Hill is at 98.9 (national average = 100). Durham-Chapel Hill 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.