Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
- Lexington Park
- 100.8
Diff +2.5 RPP
Merced vs Lexington Park
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lexington Park is 2.5% more expensive than Merced.
2.5% more expensive
Lexington Park, MD is 2.5% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.8 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $102,529 in Lexington Park; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 100.8 (Lexington Park)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $102,529 purchasing power in Lexington Park
- Services drives the gap (-51.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:MD 98.3→100.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × MD
- 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
- Lexington Park
- 99.7
Diff -5.5 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
- Lexington Park
- 106.4
Diff -51.9 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
- Lexington Park
- 103.8
Diff +25.2 RPP
| Category | Merced | Lexington Park | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 100.8 | +2.5 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 99.7 | -5.5 |
| Services | 158.3 | 106.4 | -51.9 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 103.8 | +25.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Lexington Park 100.8
Goods
Merced 105.2
Lexington Park 99.7
Services
Merced 158.3
Lexington Park 106.4
Rents
Merced 78.6
Lexington Park 103.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Lexington Park is 51.9 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.
Lexington Park, MD is 2.5% more expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Lexington Park 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 $102,529 in Lexington Park, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Lexington Park
100.8
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Lexington Park for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Lexington Park | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,264 | +$1,264 |
| $75,000 | $76,896 | +$1,896 |
| $100,000 | $102,529 | +$2,529 |
| $150,000 | $153,793 | +$3,793 |
$ in Merced = in Lexington Park
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 100.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Lexington Park share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.7 to 2.5 RPP points. Lexington Park remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 64.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (12.3 to 51.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Lexington Park RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 103.0 | 8.7 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 102.6 | 4.0 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 103.3 | 7.9 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 101.4 | 2.7 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 100.8 | 2.5 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lexington Park more expensive than Merced?
Lexington Park is 2.5% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 100.8 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lexington Park equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $102,529 in Lexington Park. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Lexington Park?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Lexington Park is at 103.8 (national average = 100). Lexington Park 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.