Overall
Diff -2.4 RPP
Kingston vs Merced
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Merced is 2.4% less expensive than Kingston.
2.4% less expensive
Merced, CA is 2.4% less expensive than Kingston, NY on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 100.7). A $100,000 salary in Kingston buys about the same as $97,583 in Merced; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.7 (Kingston) vs 98.3 (Merced)
- $100k in Kingston ≈ $97,583 purchasing power in Merced
- Rents drives the gap (-31.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NY:CA 100.7→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE NY × CA
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +5.5 RPP
Services
Diff +24.7 RPP
Rents
Diff -31.5 RPP
| Category | Kingston | Merced | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.7 | 98.3 | -2.4 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 105.2 | +5.5 |
| Services | 133.6 | 158.3 | +24.7 |
| Rents | 110.2 | 78.6 | -31.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Kingston 100.7
Merced 98.3
Goods
Kingston 99.7
Merced 105.2
Services
Kingston 133.6
Merced 158.3
Rents
Kingston 110.2
Merced 78.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Merced is 31.5 points lower. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Merced, CA is 2.4% less expensive than Kingston, NY, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.4-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Kingston is above 100 while Merced 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 Kingston corresponds to $97,583 in Merced.
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Kingston would need to be in Merced for the same purchasing power:
| In Kingston | In Merced | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,792 | $-1,208 |
| $75,000 | $73,187 | $-1,813 |
| $100,000 | $97,583 | $-2,417 |
| $150,000 | $146,375 | $-3,625 |
$ in Kingston = in Merced
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.7 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Kingston and Merced share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 12.9 to 2.4 RPP points. Kingston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 68.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (43.9 to 24.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Kingston RPP | Merced RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 107.1 | 94.3 | 12.9 points Kingston higher |
| 2012 | 102.0 | 98.6 | 3.5 points Kingston higher |
| 2016 | 101.2 | 95.3 | 5.9 points Kingston higher |
| 2020 | 101.6 | 98.7 | 2.8 points Kingston higher |
| 2024 | 100.7 | 98.3 | 2.4 points Kingston 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 Merced more expensive than Kingston?
Merced is 2.4% less expensive than Kingston. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 100.7 (national average = 100).
What salary in Merced equals $100K in Kingston?
A $100,000 salary in Kingston has the same purchasing power as $97,583 in Merced. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Kingston and Merced?
Rents in Kingston are indexed at 110.2 while Merced is at 78.6 (national average = 100). Kingston 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.