Overall
Diff +4.5 RPP
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood vs Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood.
4.7% more expensive
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.0 vs 95.5). A $100,000 salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood buys about the same as $104,667 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 95.5 (Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood) vs 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville)
- $100k in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood ≈ $104,667 purchasing power in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
- Rents drives the gap (+25.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MI:FL 95.5→100.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MI × 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
Diff +2.5 RPP
Services
Diff -5.7 RPP
Rents
Diff +25.1 RPP
| Category | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 95.5 | 100.0 | +4.5 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 96.2 | +2.5 |
| Services | 93.8 | 88.1 | -5.7 |
| Rents | 86.6 | 111.7 | +25.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 95.5
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Goods
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.7
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Services
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.8
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Rents
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 86.6
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 25.1 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL 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: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood corresponds to $104,667 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
95.5
Cost Index
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood would need to be in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville for the same purchasing power:
| In Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,333 | +$2,333 |
| $75,000 | $78,500 | +$3,500 |
| $100,000 | $104,667 | +$4,667 |
| $150,000 | $157,000 | +$7,000 |
$ in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood = in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (95.5 → 100.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 4.3 to 4.5 RPP points. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 8.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.8 to 5.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood RPP | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.6 | 99.9 | 4.3 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2012 | 94.7 | 98.0 | 3.3 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2016 | 94.2 | 98.8 | 4.6 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2020 | 94.3 | 96.8 | 2.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2024 | 95.5 | 100.0 | 4.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood?
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 4.7% more expensive than Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood. The overall cost index is 100.0 vs 95.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville equals $100K in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood?
A $100,000 salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood has the same purchasing power as $104,667 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Rents in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood are indexed at 86.6 while Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is at 111.7 (national average = 100). Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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.