Overall
- Kalamazoo-Portage
- 94.8
Diff -0.1 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. San Antonio-New Braunfels is 0.1% less expensive than Kalamazoo-Portage.
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX is 0.1% less expensive than Kalamazoo-Portage, MI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 94.7 vs 94.8). A $100,000 salary in Kalamazoo-Portage buys about the same as $99,869 in San Antonio-New Braunfels; the largest component gap is services.
RPP parity plate
Pair MI:TX 94.8→94.7
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-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.
Kalamazoo-Portage, MI and San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: San Antonio-New Braunfels is 17.1 points lower. But rents 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 Kalamazoo-Portage to $99,869 in San Antonio-New Braunfels, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Diff -0.1 RPP
Diff +0.0 RPP
Diff -17.1 RPP
Diff +13.0 RPP
| Category | Kalamazoo-Portage | San Antonio-New Braunfels | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 94.8 | 94.7 | -0.1 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 93.8 | +0.0 |
| Services | 99.3 | 82.2 | -17.1 |
| Rents | 81.6 | 94.6 | +13.0 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
What a salary in Kalamazoo-Portage would need to be in San Antonio-New Braunfels for the same purchasing power:
| In Kalamazoo-Portage | In San Antonio-New Braunfels | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,935 | $-65 |
| $75,000 | $74,902 | $-98 |
| $100,000 | $99,869 | $-131 |
| $150,000 | $149,804 | $-196 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (94.8 → 94.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
San Antonio-New Braunfels is 0.1% less expensive than Kalamazoo-Portage. The overall cost index is 94.7 vs 94.8 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Kalamazoo-Portage has the same purchasing power as $99,869 in San Antonio-New Braunfels. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Kalamazoo-Portage are indexed at 81.6 while San Antonio-New Braunfels is at 94.6 (national average = 100). San Antonio-New Braunfels has higher rents.
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.