Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach vs Yakima

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Yakima is 16.3% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

16.3% less expensive

Yakima, WA is 16.3% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 95.5 vs 114.2). A $100,000 salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach buys about the same as $83,698 in Yakima; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 114.2 (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach) vs 95.5 (Yakima)
  • $100k in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach ≈ $83,698 purchasing power in Yakima
  • Rents drives the gap (-82.9 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair FL:WA 114.2→95.5

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-STEEP

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE FL × WA
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • 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.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Yakima
95.5
Goods
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
103.6
Yakima
105.0
Services
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
97.2
Yakima
91.9
Rents
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
155.6
Yakima
72.6

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rents creates the largest separation: Yakima is 82.9 points lower. But goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL and Yakima, WA sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 18.6 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 Yakima 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 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 $83,698 in Yakima.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Cost Index
Yakima
95.5
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

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

In Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach In Yakima Difference
$50,000 $41,849 $-8,151
$75,000 $62,773 $-12,227
$100,000 $83,698 $-16,302
$150,000 $125,546 $-24,454
$ in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach = in Yakima

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (114.2 → 95.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Yakima more expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach?

Yakima is 16.3% less expensive than Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach. The overall cost index is 95.5 vs 114.2 (national average = 100).

What salary in Yakima 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 $83,698 in Yakima. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Yakima?

Rents in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach are indexed at 155.6 while Yakima is at 72.6 (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.