Overall
Diff -1.9 RPP
Kingston vs Santa Fe
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Santa Fe is 1.9% less expensive than Kingston.
1.9% less expensive
Santa Fe, NM is 1.9% less expensive than Kingston, NY on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.8 vs 100.7). A $100,000 salary in Kingston buys about the same as $98,072 in Santa Fe; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.7 (Kingston) vs 98.8 (Santa Fe)
- $100k in Kingston ≈ $98,072 purchasing power in Santa Fe
- Services drives the gap (-56.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NY:NM 100.7→98.8
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NY × NM
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Kingston, NY and Santa Fe, NM are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.9 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services leads the difference, with Santa Fe 56.9 points lower than Kingston. 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.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Kingston is above 100 while Santa Fe is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Kingston to $98,072 in Santa Fe, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -3.5 RPP
Services
Diff -56.9 RPP
Rents
Diff -2.2 RPP
| Category | Kingston | Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.7 | 98.8 | -1.9 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 96.1 | -3.5 |
| Services | 133.6 | 76.7 | -56.9 |
| Rents | 110.2 | 108.0 | -2.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Kingston 100.7
Santa Fe 98.8
Goods
Kingston 99.7
Santa Fe 96.1
Services
Kingston 133.6
Santa Fe 76.7
Rents
Kingston 110.2
Santa Fe 108.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Kingston and Santa Fe share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 9.1 to 1.9 RPP points. Kingston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 33.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (35.9 to 2.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Kingston RPP | Santa Fe RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 107.1 | 98.0 | 9.1 points Kingston higher |
| 2012 | 102.0 | 102.1 | 0.1 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2016 | 101.2 | 98.4 | 2.7 points Kingston higher |
| 2020 | 101.6 | 96.6 | 5.0 points Kingston higher |
| 2024 | 100.7 | 98.8 | 1.9 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Kingston would need to be in Santa Fe for the same purchasing power:
| In Kingston | In Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,036 | $-964 |
| $75,000 | $73,554 | $-1,446 |
| $100,000 | $98,072 | $-1,928 |
| $150,000 | $147,108 | $-2,892 |
$ in Kingston = in Santa Fe
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.7 → 98.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Santa Fe more expensive than Kingston?
Santa Fe is 1.9% less expensive than Kingston. The overall cost index is 98.8 vs 100.7 (national average = 100).
What salary in Santa Fe equals $100K in Kingston?
A $100,000 salary in Kingston has the same purchasing power as $98,072 in Santa Fe. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Kingston and Santa Fe?
Rents in Kingston are indexed at 110.2 while Santa Fe is at 108.0 (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.