Overall
Diff +2.4 RPP
Merced vs Kingston
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kingston is 2.5% more expensive than Merced.
2.5% more expensive
Kingston, NY is 2.5% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.7 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $102,477 in Kingston; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 100.7 (Kingston)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $102,477 purchasing power in Kingston
- Rents drives the gap (+31.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:NY 98.3→100.7
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × NY
- 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 | Merced | Kingston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 100.7 | +2.4 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 99.7 | -5.5 |
| Services | 158.3 | 133.6 | -24.7 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 110.2 | +31.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Kingston 100.7
Goods
Merced 105.2
Kingston 99.7
Services
Merced 158.3
Kingston 133.6
Rents
Merced 78.6
Kingston 110.2
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Kingston is 31.5 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Kingston, NY is 2.5% more expensive than Merced, CA, 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 Merced corresponds to $102,477 in Kingston.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Kingston for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Kingston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,238 | +$1,238 |
| $75,000 | $76,858 | +$1,858 |
| $100,000 | $102,477 | +$2,477 |
| $150,000 | $153,715 | +$3,715 |
$ in Merced = in Kingston
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 100.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Kingston 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 | Merced RPP | Kingston RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 107.1 | 12.9 points Kingston higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 102.0 | 3.5 points Kingston higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 101.2 | 5.9 points Kingston higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 101.6 | 2.8 points Kingston higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 100.7 | 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 Kingston more expensive than Merced?
Kingston is 2.5% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 100.7 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Kingston equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $102,477 in Kingston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Kingston?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Kingston is at 110.2 (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.