Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 103.9
Diff +5.6 RPP
Merced vs Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is 5.7% more expensive than Merced.
5.7% more expensive
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA is 5.7% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.9 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $105,678 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 103.9 (Wenatchee-East Wenatchee)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $105,678 purchasing power in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- Services drives the gap (-57.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:WA 98.3→103.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × WA
- 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
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 105.0
Diff -0.1 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 100.6
Diff -57.7 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
- Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
- 115.0
Diff +36.3 RPP
| Category | Merced | Wenatchee-East Wenatchee | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 103.9 | +5.6 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 105.0 | -0.1 |
| Services | 158.3 | 100.6 | -57.7 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 115.0 | +36.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 103.9
Goods
Merced 105.2
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 105.0
Services
Merced 158.3
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 100.6
Rents
Merced 78.6
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 115.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is 57.7 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.
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA is 5.7% more expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 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 $105,678 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
103.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Wenatchee-East Wenatchee | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,839 | +$2,839 |
| $75,000 | $79,258 | +$4,258 |
| $100,000 | $105,678 | +$5,678 |
| $150,000 | $158,517 | +$8,517 |
$ in Merced = in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 103.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Wenatchee-East Wenatchee share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 3.5 to 5.6 RPP points. Wenatchee-East Wenatchee remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 31.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (4.9 to 36.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Wenatchee-East Wenatchee RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 97.8 | 3.5 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 97.0 | 1.6 points Merced higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 97.6 | 2.3 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 102.4 | 3.6 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 103.9 | 5.6 points Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 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 Wenatchee-East Wenatchee more expensive than Merced?
Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is 5.7% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 103.9 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $105,678 in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Wenatchee-East Wenatchee?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Wenatchee-East Wenatchee is at 115.0 (national average = 100). Wenatchee-East Wenatchee 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.