Overall
Diff +0.3 RPP
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux vs Wildwood-The Villages
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wildwood-The Villages is 0.4% more expensive than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux.
0.4% more expensive
Wildwood-The Villages, FL is 0.4% more expensive than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.4 vs 85.1). A $100,000 salary in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux buys about the same as $100,377 in Wildwood-The Villages; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 85.1 (Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux) vs 85.4 (Wildwood-The Villages)
- $100k in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux ≈ $100,377 purchasing power in Wildwood-The Villages
- Services drives the gap (+17.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair LA:FL 85.1→85.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE LA × FL
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux
85.1
Cost Index
Wildwood-The Villages
85.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA and Wildwood-The Villages, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.3 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services leads the difference, with Wildwood-The Villages 17.7 points higher than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux. 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.
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 Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux to $100,377 in Wildwood-The Villages, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +2.5 RPP
Services
Diff +17.7 RPP
Rents
Diff +0.4 RPP
| Category | Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux | Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 85.1 | 85.4 | +0.3 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 96.2 | +2.5 |
| Services | 71.3 | 89.0 | +17.7 |
| Rents | 51.3 | 51.7 | +0.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux 85.1
Wildwood-The Villages 85.4
Goods
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux 93.7
Wildwood-The Villages 96.2
Services
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux 71.3
Wildwood-The Villages 89.0
Rents
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux 51.3
Wildwood-The Villages 51.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux and Wildwood-The Villages share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.1 to 0.3 RPP points. Wildwood-The Villages remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.3 to 17.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux RPP | Wildwood-The Villages RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 90.5 | 90.4 | 0.1 points Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux higher |
| 2012 | 95.2 | 93.0 | 2.1 points Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux higher |
| 2016 | 95.1 | 93.8 | 1.3 points Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux higher |
| 2020 | 92.2 | 92.0 | 0.1 points Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux higher |
| 2024 | 85.1 | 85.4 | 0.3 points Wildwood-The Villages 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux would need to be in Wildwood-The Villages for the same purchasing power:
| In Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux | In Wildwood-The Villages | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,189 | +$189 |
| $75,000 | $75,283 | +$283 |
| $100,000 | $100,377 | +$377 |
| $150,000 | $150,566 | +$566 |
$ in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux = in Wildwood-The Villages
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (85.1 → 85.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wildwood-The Villages more expensive than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux?
Wildwood-The Villages is 0.4% more expensive than Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux. The overall cost index is 85.4 vs 85.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Wildwood-The Villages equals $100K in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux?
A $100,000 salary in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux has the same purchasing power as $100,377 in Wildwood-The Villages. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux and Wildwood-The Villages?
Rents in Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux are indexed at 51.3 while Wildwood-The Villages is at 51.7 (national average = 100). Wildwood-The Villages 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.