Overall
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 102.4
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -4.1 RPP
Mount Vernon-Anacortes vs Boise City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Boise City is 4% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes.
4% less expensive
Boise City, ID is 4% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 102.4). A $100,000 salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes buys about the same as $96,045 in Boise City; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 102.4 (Mount Vernon-Anacortes) vs 98.4 (Boise City)
- $100k in Mount Vernon-Anacortes ≈ $96,045 purchasing power in Boise City
- Services drives the gap (-25.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair WA:ID 102.4→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE WA × 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 4% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.1-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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 25.3 points lower than Mount Vernon-Anacortes. 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 Mount Vernon-Anacortes to $96,045 in Boise City, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Mount Vernon-Anacortes and Boise City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.7 to 4.1 RPP points. Mount Vernon-Anacortes remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 26.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (0.7 to 25.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Mount Vernon-Anacortes RPP | Boise City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 95.3 | 7.7 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2012 | 98.7 | 96.7 | 2.0 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2016 | 101.4 | 93.2 | 8.3 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2020 | 102.1 | 93.6 | 8.5 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2024 | 102.4 | 98.4 | 4.1 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 105.0
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff -8.8 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff -25.3 RPP
Rents
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 108.2
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -2.6 RPP
| Category | Mount Vernon-Anacortes | Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 102.4 | 98.4 | -4.1 |
| Goods | 105.0 | 96.2 | -8.8 |
| Services | 96.0 | 70.7 | -25.3 |
| Rents | 108.2 | 105.6 | -2.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 102.4
Boise City 98.4
Goods
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 105.0
Boise City 96.2
Services
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 96.0
Boise City 70.7
Rents
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 108.2
Boise City 105.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes would need to be in Boise City for the same purchasing power:
| In Mount Vernon-Anacortes | In Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,022 | $-1,978 |
| $75,000 | $72,033 | $-2,967 |
| $100,000 | $96,045 | $-3,955 |
| $150,000 | $144,067 | $-5,933 |
$ in Mount Vernon-Anacortes = in Boise City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (102.4 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Mount Vernon-Anacortes
102.4
Cost Index
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Boise City more expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes?
Boise City is 4% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 102.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Boise City equals $100K in Mount Vernon-Anacortes?
A $100,000 salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes has the same purchasing power as $96,045 in Boise City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Mount Vernon-Anacortes and Boise City?
Rents in Mount Vernon-Anacortes are indexed at 108.2 while Boise City is at 105.6 (national average = 100). Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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.