Overall
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
- Walla Walla
- 98.5
Diff -4.7 RPP
Fairbanks-College vs Walla Walla
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Walla Walla is 4.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College.
4.5% less expensive
Walla Walla, WA is 4.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.5 vs 103.2). A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College buys about the same as $95,457 in Walla Walla; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.2 (Fairbanks-College) vs 98.5 (Walla Walla)
- $100k in Fairbanks-College ≈ $95,457 purchasing power in Walla Walla
- Services drives the gap (-25.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:WA 103.2→98.5
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AK × WA
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Walla Walla, WA is 4.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.7-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Walla Walla is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Walla Walla 25.5 points lower than Fairbanks-College. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
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 $95,457 in Walla Walla, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Fairbanks-College and Walla Walla share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 9.1 to 4.7 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 38.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (44.5 to 6.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Fairbanks-College RPP | Walla Walla RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 104.7 | 95.6 | 9.1 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 95.1 | 2.8 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2016 | 100.4 | 96.3 | 4.1 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 99.4 | 95.2 | 4.2 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 103.2 | 98.5 | 4.7 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
- Walla Walla
- 105.0
Diff -2.3 RPP
Services
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
- Walla Walla
- 94.3
Diff -25.5 RPP
Rents
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
- Walla Walla
- 86.6
Diff -6.0 RPP
| Category | Fairbanks-College | Walla Walla | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.2 | 98.5 | -4.7 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 105.0 | -2.3 |
| Services | 119.8 | 94.3 | -25.5 |
| Rents | 92.6 | 86.6 | -6.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Walla Walla 98.5
Goods
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Walla Walla 105.0
Services
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Walla Walla 94.3
Rents
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Walla Walla 86.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Fairbanks-College would need to be in Walla Walla for the same purchasing power:
| In Fairbanks-College | In Walla Walla | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,728 | $-2,272 |
| $75,000 | $71,593 | $-3,407 |
| $100,000 | $95,457 | $-4,543 |
| $150,000 | $143,185 | $-6,815 |
$ in Fairbanks-College = in Walla Walla
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.2 → 98.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Walla Walla
98.5
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Walla Walla more expensive than Fairbanks-College?
Walla Walla is 4.5% less expensive than Fairbanks-College. The overall cost index is 98.5 vs 103.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Walla Walla equals $100K in Fairbanks-College?
A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College has the same purchasing power as $95,457 in Walla Walla. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fairbanks-College and Walla Walla?
Rents in Fairbanks-College are indexed at 92.6 while Walla Walla is at 86.6 (national average = 100). Fairbanks-College 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.