Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
Diff -4.6 RPP
Merced vs Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach is 4.7% less expensive than Merced.
4.7% less expensive
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC is 4.7% less expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 93.6 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $95,286 in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 93.6 (Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $95,286 purchasing power in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach
- Services drives the gap (-70.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:SC 98.3→93.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × SC
- 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 -8.8 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff -70.4 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
Diff +4.5 RPP
| Category | Merced | Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 93.6 | -4.6 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 96.3 | -8.8 |
| Services | 158.3 | 88.0 | -70.4 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 83.1 | +4.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach 93.6
Goods
Merced 105.2
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach 96.3
Services
Merced 158.3
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach 88.0
Rents
Merced 78.6
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach 83.1
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach is 70.4 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC is 4.7% less expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.6-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 $95,286 in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach
93.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,643 | $-2,357 |
| $75,000 | $71,464 | $-3,536 |
| $100,000 | $95,286 | $-4,714 |
| $150,000 | $142,929 | $-7,071 |
$ in Merced = in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 93.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.7 to 4.6 RPP points. Merced remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 54.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (16.4 to 70.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 95.0 | 0.7 points Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 96.7 | 1.9 points Merced higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 96.2 | 0.9 points Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 92.0 | 6.7 points Merced higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 93.6 | 4.6 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 Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach more expensive than Merced?
Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach is 4.7% less expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 93.6 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $95,286 in Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach is at 83.1 (national average = 100). Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach 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.