Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -6.4 RPP
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington vs Boise City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Boise City is 6.1% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington.
6.1% less expensive
Boise City, ID is 6.1% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 104.8). A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington buys about the same as $93,865 in Boise City; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington) vs 98.4 (Boise City)
- $100k in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington ≈ $93,865 purchasing power in Boise City
- Services drives the gap (-22.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:ID 104.8→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MN × ID
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Boise City, ID is 6.1% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.4-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Boise City 22.8 points lower than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington to $93,865 in Boise City, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Boise City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.7 to 6.4 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 20.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (26.8 to 6.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Boise City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 95.3 | 7.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2012 | 101.2 | 96.7 | 4.6 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 102.3 | 93.2 | 9.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2020 | 102.4 | 93.6 | 8.8 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 104.8 | 98.4 | 6.4 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff -6.9 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff -22.8 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -6.3 RPP
| Category | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104.8 | 98.4 | -6.4 |
| Goods | 103.1 | 96.2 | -6.9 |
| Services | 93.5 | 70.7 | -22.8 |
| Rents | 111.8 | 105.6 | -6.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Boise City 98.4
Goods
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Boise City 96.2
Services
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Boise City 70.7
Rents
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Boise City 105.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington would need to be in Boise City for the same purchasing power:
| In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | In Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,932 | $-3,068 |
| $75,000 | $70,399 | $-4,601 |
| $100,000 | $93,865 | $-6,135 |
| $150,000 | $140,797 | $-9,203 |
$ in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington = in Boise City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (104.8 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Boise City more expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Boise City is 6.1% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 104.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Boise City equals $100K in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington has the same purchasing power as $93,865 in Boise City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Boise City?
Rents in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington are indexed at 111.8 while Boise City is at 105.6 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.