Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach vs Fond du Lac

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fond du Lac is 19.7% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

19.7% less expensive

Fond du Lac, WI is 19.7% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.6 vs 114.2). A $100,000 salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach buys about the same as $80,279 in Fond du Lac; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 114.2 (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach) vs 91.6 (Fond du Lac)
  • $100k in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach ≈ $80,279 purchasing power in Fond du Lac
  • Rents drives the gap (-88.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair FL:WI 114.2→91.6

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

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE FL × WI
  • 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 Fond du Lac for the same purchasing power:

In Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach In Fond du Lac Difference
$50,000 $40,140 $-9,860
$75,000 $60,210 $-14,790
$100,000 $80,279 $-19,721
$150,000 $120,419 $-29,581
$ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach = in Fond du Lac

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (114.2 → 91.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL and Fond du Lac, WI sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 22.5 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 Fond du Lac is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Rents leads the difference, with Fond du Lac 88.2 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 $80,279 in Fond du Lac.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Fond du Lac
91.6
Goods
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
103.6
Fond du Lac
93.8
Services
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
97.2
Fond du Lac
91.1
Rents
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
155.6
Fond du Lac
67.3

Vertical line = national average (100)

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Cost Index
Fond du Lac
91.6
Cost Index

How the Price Gap Changed

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Fond du Lac share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 23.0 to 22.5 RPP points. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 13.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (22.8 to 9.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach RPP Fond du Lac RPP Relative Gap
2008 106.5 83.4 23.0 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2012 107.5 91.0 16.5 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2016 107.9 88.2 19.8 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2020 109.5 91.2 18.3 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2024 114.2 91.6 22.5 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach 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 Fond du Lac more expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach?

Fond du Lac is 19.7% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach. The overall cost index is 91.6 vs 114.2 (national average = 100).

What salary in Fond du Lac 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 $80,279 in Fond du Lac. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Fond du Lac?

Rents in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach are indexed at 155.6 while Fond du Lac is at 67.3 (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.