Overall
- Fort Smith
- 85.9
Diff -0.5 RPP
Fort Smith vs Wildwood-The Villages
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wildwood-The Villages is 0.5% less expensive than Fort Smith.
0.5% less expensive
Wildwood-The Villages, FL is 0.5% less expensive than Fort Smith, AR-OK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.4 vs 85.9). A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith buys about the same as $99,460 in Wildwood-The Villages; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 85.9 (Fort Smith) vs 85.4 (Wildwood-The Villages)
- $100k in Fort Smith ≈ $99,460 purchasing power in Wildwood-The Villages
- Services drives the gap (+15.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AR:FL 85.9→85.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE AR × FL
- 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.
Fort Smith
85.9
Cost Index
Wildwood-The Villages
85.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Fort Smith, AR-OK and Wildwood-The Villages, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.5 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Wildwood-The Villages is 15.2 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Fort Smith to $99,460 in Wildwood-The Villages, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Fort Smith
- 93.6
Diff +2.6 RPP
Services
- Fort Smith
- 73.8
Diff +15.2 RPP
Rents
- Fort Smith
- 53.4
Diff -1.7 RPP
| Category | Fort Smith | Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 85.9 | 85.4 | -0.5 |
| Goods | 93.6 | 96.2 | +2.6 |
| Services | 73.8 | 89.0 | +15.2 |
| Rents | 53.4 | 51.7 | -1.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fort Smith 85.9
Wildwood-The Villages 85.4
Goods
Fort Smith 93.6
Wildwood-The Villages 96.2
Services
Fort Smith 73.8
Wildwood-The Villages 89.0
Rents
Fort Smith 53.4
Wildwood-The Villages 51.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Fort Smith would need to be in Wildwood-The Villages for the same purchasing power:
| In Fort Smith | In Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,730 | $-270 |
| $75,000 | $74,595 | $-405 |
| $100,000 | $99,460 | $-540 |
| $150,000 | $149,190 | $-810 |
$ in Fort Smith = in Wildwood-The Villages
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (85.9 → 85.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wildwood-The Villages more expensive than Fort Smith?
Wildwood-The Villages is 0.5% less expensive than Fort Smith. The overall cost index is 85.4 vs 85.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Wildwood-The Villages equals $100K in Fort Smith?
A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith has the same purchasing power as $99,460 in Wildwood-The Villages. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fort Smith and Wildwood-The Villages?
Rents in Fort Smith are indexed at 53.4 while Wildwood-The Villages is at 51.7 (national average = 100). Fort Smith 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.