PlainCost
Home / Compare /

Montgomery vs Lima

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lima is 0% less expensive than Montgomery.

0% less expensive

Lima, OH is 0% less expensive than Montgomery, AL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 89.7 vs 89.7). A $100,000 salary in Montgomery buys about the same as $99,986 in Lima; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 89.7 (Montgomery) vs 89.7 (Lima)
  • $100k in Montgomery ≈ $99,986 purchasing power in Lima
  • Services drives the gap (+10.9 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AL:OH 89.7→89.7

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE AL × OH
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
  • PP-PAR PP near-par

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.

Montgomery
89.7
Cost Index
Lima
89.7
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Montgomery, AL and Lima, OH are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Lima is 10.9 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.

Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.

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 Montgomery to $99,986 in Lima, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Montgomery
89.7
Lima
89.7
Goods
Montgomery
96.4
Lima
93.6
Services
Montgomery
84.9
Lima
95.8
Rents
Montgomery
64.3
Lima
57.3

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Montgomery would need to be in Lima for the same purchasing power:

In Montgomery In Lima Difference
$50,000 $49,993 $-7
$75,000 $74,989 $-11
$100,000 $99,986 $-14
$150,000 $149,978 $-22
$ in Montgomery = – in Lima

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (89.7 → 89.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Lima → Montgomery Montgomery Details Lima Details

Also Compare

vs Kokomo vs Victoria vs Dalton vs Wichita Falls vs Altoona

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lima more expensive than Montgomery?

Lima is 0% less expensive than Montgomery. The overall cost index is 89.7 vs 89.7 (national average = 100).

What salary in Lima equals $100K in Montgomery?

A $100,000 salary in Montgomery has the same purchasing power as $99,986 in Lima. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Montgomery and Lima?

Rents in Montgomery are indexed at 64.3 while Lima is at 57.3 (national average = 100). Montgomery has higher rents.

Data sources

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.