Iowa City vs Naples-Marco Island

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Naples-Marco Island is 12.8% more expensive than Iowa City.

12.8% more expensive

Naples-Marco Island, FL is 12.8% more expensive than Iowa City, IA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.2 vs 91.5). A $100,000 salary in Iowa City buys about the same as $112,776 in Naples-Marco Island; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 91.5 (Iowa City) vs 103.2 (Naples-Marco Island)
  • $100k in Iowa City ≈ $112,776 purchasing power in Naples-Marco Island
  • Rents drives the gap (+45.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair IA:FL 91.5→103.2

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE IA × FL
  • RENT-LED Rent-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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Iowa City would need to be in Naples-Marco Island for the same purchasing power:

In Iowa City In Naples-Marco Island Difference
$50,000 $56,388 +$6,388
$75,000 $84,582 +$9,582
$100,000 $112,776 +$12,776
$150,000 $169,164 +$19,164
$ in Iowa City = in Naples-Marco Island

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.5 → 103.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Iowa City, IA and Naples-Marco Island, FL sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 11.7 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Naples-Marco Island is above 100 while Iowa City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Rents leads the difference, with Naples-Marco Island 45.5 points higher than Iowa City. 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 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 Iowa City corresponds to $112,776 in Naples-Marco Island.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Iowa City
91.5
Naples-Marco Island
103.2
Goods
Iowa City
93.7
Naples-Marco Island
96.2
Services
Iowa City
83.7
Naples-Marco Island
87.8
Rents
Iowa City
84.0
Naples-Marco Island
129.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

Iowa City
91.5
Cost Index
Naples-Marco Island
103.2
Cost Index

How the Price Gap Changed

Iowa City and Naples-Marco Island share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 8.6 to 11.7 RPP points. Naples-Marco Island remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 0.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.6 to 2.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Iowa City RPP Naples-Marco Island RPP Relative Gap
2008 95.7 104.3 8.6 points Naples-Marco Island higher
2012 96.5 101.6 5.1 points Naples-Marco Island higher
2016 95.4 103.8 8.4 points Naples-Marco Island higher
2020 95.6 99.1 3.5 points Naples-Marco Island higher
2024 91.5 103.2 11.7 points Naples-Marco Island 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 Naples-Marco Island more expensive than Iowa City?

Naples-Marco Island is 12.8% more expensive than Iowa City. The overall cost index is 103.2 vs 91.5 (national average = 100).

What salary in Naples-Marco Island equals $100K in Iowa City?

A $100,000 salary in Iowa City has the same purchasing power as $112,776 in Naples-Marco Island. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Iowa City and Naples-Marco Island?

Rents in Iowa City are indexed at 84.0 while Naples-Marco Island is at 129.4 (national average = 100). Naples-Marco Island has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.