Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach vs Brunswick-St. Simons

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brunswick-St. Simons is 23.2% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

23.2% less expensive

Brunswick-St. Simons, GA is 23.2% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 87.7 vs 114.2). A $100,000 salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach buys about the same as $76,832 in Brunswick-St. Simons; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 114.2 (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach) vs 87.7 (Brunswick-St. Simons)
  • $100k in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach ≈ $76,832 purchasing power in Brunswick-St. Simons
  • Rents drives the gap (-99.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair FL:GA 114.2→87.7

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-STEEP

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE FL × GA
  • RENT-LED Rent-led gap
  • BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
  • PP-STEEP Steep PP convert

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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach would need to be in Brunswick-St. Simons for the same purchasing power:

In Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach In Brunswick-St. Simons Difference
$50,000 $38,416 $-11,584
$75,000 $57,624 $-17,376
$100,000 $76,832 $-23,168
$150,000 $115,249 $-34,751
$ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach = in Brunswick-St. Simons

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (114.2 → 87.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL and Brunswick-St. Simons, GA sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 26.4 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is above 100 while Brunswick-St. Simons is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Rents leads the difference, with Brunswick-St. Simons 99.2 points lower than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.

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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach corresponds to $76,832 in Brunswick-St. Simons.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Brunswick-St. Simons
87.7
Goods
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
103.6
Brunswick-St. Simons
96.3
Services
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
97.2
Brunswick-St. Simons
87.3
Rents
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
155.6
Brunswick-St. Simons
56.3

Vertical line = national average (100)

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Cost Index
Brunswick-St. Simons
87.7
Cost Index

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Brunswick-St. Simons more expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach?

Brunswick-St. Simons is 23.2% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach. The overall cost index is 87.7 vs 114.2 (national average = 100).

What salary in Brunswick-St. Simons equals $100K in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach?

A $100,000 salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach has the same purchasing power as $76,832 in Brunswick-St. Simons. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Brunswick-St. Simons?

Rents in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach are indexed at 155.6 while Brunswick-St. Simons is at 56.3 (national average = 100). Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.