Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
Diff +4.8 RPP
Merced vs Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.9% more expensive than Merced.
4.9% more expensive
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.9% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.1 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $104,900 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $104,900 purchasing power in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
- Services drives the gap (-67.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:TX 98.3→103.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Merced
- 105.2
Diff -2.3 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff -67.6 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
Diff +39.2 RPP
| Category | Merced | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 103.1 | +4.8 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 102.8 | -2.3 |
| Services | 158.3 | 90.7 | -67.6 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 117.9 | +39.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Goods
Merced 105.2
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Services
Merced 158.3
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Rents
Merced 78.6
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 67.6 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.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.9% more expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.8-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Merced to $104,900 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,450 | +$2,450 |
| $75,000 | $78,675 | +$3,675 |
| $100,000 | $104,900 | +$4,900 |
| $150,000 | $157,349 | +$7,349 |
$ in Merced = in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 103.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.1 to 4.8 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 74.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (6.4 to 67.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 101.4 | 7.1 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 100.8 | 2.2 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 98.0 | 2.7 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 104.5 | 5.8 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 103.1 | 4.8 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington more expensive than Merced?
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.9% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 103.1 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $104,900 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is at 117.9 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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.