Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
Diff -4.2 RPP
Merced vs Lake Havasu City-Kingman
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lake Havasu City-Kingman is 4.3% less expensive than Merced.
4.3% less expensive
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ is 4.3% less expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 94.1 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $95,750 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 94.1 (Lake Havasu City-Kingman)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $95,750 purchasing power in Lake Havasu City-Kingman
- Services drives the gap (-69.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:AZ 98.3→94.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × AZ
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- 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 -8.9 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff -69.6 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
Diff +1.1 RPP
| Category | Merced | Lake Havasu City-Kingman | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 94.1 | -4.2 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 96.2 | -8.9 |
| Services | 158.3 | 88.7 | -69.6 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 79.8 | +1.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Lake Havasu City-Kingman 94.1
Goods
Merced 105.2
Lake Havasu City-Kingman 96.2
Services
Merced 158.3
Lake Havasu City-Kingman 88.7
Rents
Merced 78.6
Lake Havasu City-Kingman 79.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Lake Havasu City-Kingman is 69.6 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ is 4.3% less expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.2-point overall gap.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
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 $95,750 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Lake Havasu City-Kingman
94.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Lake Havasu City-Kingman for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Lake Havasu City-Kingman | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,875 | $-2,125 |
| $75,000 | $71,812 | $-3,188 |
| $100,000 | $95,750 | $-4,250 |
| $150,000 | $143,625 | $-6,375 |
$ in Merced = in Lake Havasu City-Kingman
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 94.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Lake Havasu City-Kingman share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.5 to 4.2 RPP points. Merced remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 58.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (11.6 to 69.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Lake Havasu City-Kingman RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 93.8 | 0.5 points Merced higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 95.5 | 3.1 points Merced higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 93.0 | 2.3 points Merced higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 87.7 | 11.1 points Merced higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 94.1 | 4.2 points Merced 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 Lake Havasu City-Kingman more expensive than Merced?
Lake Havasu City-Kingman is 4.3% less expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 94.1 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lake Havasu City-Kingman equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $95,750 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Lake Havasu City-Kingman?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Lake Havasu City-Kingman is at 79.8 (national average = 100). Lake Havasu City-Kingman 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.