Overall
- Lexington Park
- 100.8
- Santa Fe
- 98.8
Diff -2.0 RPP
Lexington Park vs Santa Fe
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Santa Fe is 2% less expensive than Lexington Park.
2% less expensive
Santa Fe, NM is 2% less expensive than Lexington Park, MD on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.8 vs 100.8). A $100,000 salary in Lexington Park buys about the same as $98,022 in Santa Fe; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.8 (Lexington Park) vs 98.8 (Santa Fe)
- $100k in Lexington Park ≈ $98,022 purchasing power in Santa Fe
- Services drives the gap (-29.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MD:NM 100.8→98.8
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MD × NM
- 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.
Lexington Park
100.8
Cost Index
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Lexington Park, MD and Santa Fe, NM are a photo finish on overall price level, only 2.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Santa Fe is 29.7 points lower. But rents 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.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Lexington Park 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 Lexington Park to $98,022 in Santa Fe, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Lexington Park
- 99.7
- Santa Fe
- 96.1
Diff -3.5 RPP
Services
- Lexington Park
- 106.4
- Santa Fe
- 76.7
Diff -29.7 RPP
Rents
- Lexington Park
- 103.8
- Santa Fe
- 108.0
Diff +4.2 RPP
| Category | Lexington Park | Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.8 | 98.8 | -2.0 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 96.1 | -3.5 |
| Services | 106.4 | 76.7 | -29.7 |
| Rents | 103.8 | 108.0 | +4.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Lexington Park 100.8
Santa Fe 98.8
Goods
Lexington Park 99.7
Santa Fe 96.1
Services
Lexington Park 106.4
Santa Fe 76.7
Rents
Lexington Park 103.8
Santa Fe 108.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Lexington Park and Santa Fe share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.0 to 2.0 RPP points. Lexington Park remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (12.4 to 4.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Lexington Park RPP | Santa Fe RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 98.0 | 5.0 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2012 | 102.6 | 102.1 | 0.5 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2016 | 103.3 | 98.4 | 4.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2020 | 101.4 | 96.6 | 4.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2024 | 100.8 | 98.8 | 2.0 points Lexington Park 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 Lexington Park would need to be in Santa Fe for the same purchasing power:
| In Lexington Park | In Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,011 | $-989 |
| $75,000 | $73,517 | $-1,483 |
| $100,000 | $98,022 | $-1,978 |
| $150,000 | $147,033 | $-2,967 |
$ in Lexington Park = in Santa Fe
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.8 → 98.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Santa Fe more expensive than Lexington Park?
Santa Fe is 2% less expensive than Lexington Park. The overall cost index is 98.8 vs 100.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Santa Fe equals $100K in Lexington Park?
A $100,000 salary in Lexington Park has the same purchasing power as $98,022 in Santa Fe. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Lexington Park and Santa Fe?
Rents in Lexington Park are indexed at 103.8 while Santa Fe is at 108.0 (national average = 100). Santa Fe 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.