Overall
- Kennewick-Richland
- 100.1
Diff +4.5 RPP
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood vs Kennewick-Richland
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kennewick-Richland is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood.
4.7% more expensive
Kennewick-Richland, WA is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.1 vs 95.5). A $100,000 salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood buys about the same as $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 95.5 (Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood) vs 100.1 (Kennewick-Richland)
- $100k in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood ≈ $104,744 purchasing power in Kennewick-Richland
- Goods drives the gap (+11.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MI:WA 95.5→100.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MI × WA
- 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
- Kennewick-Richland
- 105.0
Diff +11.3 RPP
Services
- Kennewick-Richland
- 93.6
Diff -0.2 RPP
Rents
- Kennewick-Richland
- 94.8
Diff +8.2 RPP
| Category | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | Kennewick-Richland | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 95.5 | 100.1 | +4.5 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 105.0 | +11.3 |
| Services | 93.8 | 93.6 | -0.2 |
| Rents | 86.6 | 94.8 | +8.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 95.5
Kennewick-Richland 100.1
Goods
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.7
Kennewick-Richland 105.0
Services
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.8
Kennewick-Richland 93.6
Rents
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 86.6
Kennewick-Richland 94.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Kennewick-Richland is 11.3 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Kennewick-Richland, WA is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Kennewick-Richland is above 100 while Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, then replace the national basket with your own.
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
95.5
Cost Index
Kennewick-Richland
100.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood would need to be in Kennewick-Richland for the same purchasing power:
| In Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | In Kennewick-Richland | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,372 | +$2,372 |
| $75,000 | $78,558 | +$3,558 |
| $100,000 | $104,744 | +$4,744 |
| $150,000 | $157,116 | +$7,116 |
$ in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood = in Kennewick-Richland
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (95.5 → 100.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood and Kennewick-Richland share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.4 to 4.5 RPP points. Kennewick-Richland remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 20.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (21.1 to 0.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood RPP | Kennewick-Richland RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.6 | 94.2 | 1.4 points Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood higher |
| 2012 | 94.7 | 99.3 | 4.6 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
| 2016 | 94.2 | 97.4 | 3.2 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
| 2020 | 94.3 | 99.8 | 5.5 points Kennewick-Richland higher |
| 2024 | 95.5 | 100.1 | 4.5 points Kennewick-Richland 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 Kennewick-Richland more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood?
Kennewick-Richland is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood. The overall cost index is 100.1 vs 95.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Kennewick-Richland equals $100K in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood?
A $100,000 salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood has the same purchasing power as $104,744 in Kennewick-Richland. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood and Kennewick-Richland?
Rents in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood are indexed at 86.6 while Kennewick-Richland is at 94.8 (national average = 100). Kennewick-Richland 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.