Napa vs Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom is 5.2% less expensive than Napa.

5.2% less expensive

Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA is 5.2% less expensive than Napa, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 106.7 vs 112.6). A $100,000 salary in Napa buys about the same as $94,772 in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 112.6 (Napa) vs 106.7 (Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom)
  • $100k in Napa ≈ $94,772 purchasing power in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
  • Rents drives the gap (-67.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair CA:CA 112.6→106.7

TIER-NEAR · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • SAME-STATE Same state · CA
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-ABOVE Both above 100
  • 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.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Napa
112.6
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
106.7
Goods
Napa
105.2
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
105.2
Services
Napa
156.5
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
151.3
Rents
Napa
197.4
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
130.2

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rents creates the largest separation: Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom is 67.2 points lower. But goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA is 5.2% less expensive than Napa, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.9-point overall gap.

Both metros exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.

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 Napa corresponds to $94,772 in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom.

Napa
112.6
Cost Index
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
106.7
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Napa would need to be in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom for the same purchasing power:

In Napa In Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom Difference
$50,000 $47,386 $-2,614
$75,000 $71,079 $-3,921
$100,000 $94,772 $-5,228
$150,000 $142,158 $-7,842
$ in Napa = in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (112.6 → 106.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

How the Price Gap Changed

Napa and Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 13.9 to 5.9 RPP points. Napa remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 59.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (8.2 to 67.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Napa RPP Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom RPP Relative Gap
2008 115.2 101.3 13.9 points Napa higher
2012 111.6 104.9 6.8 points Napa higher
2016 117.8 101.1 16.7 points Napa higher
2020 112.2 107.0 5.3 points Napa higher
2024 112.6 106.7 5.9 points Napa 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 Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom more expensive than Napa?

Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom is 5.2% less expensive than Napa. The overall cost index is 106.7 vs 112.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom equals $100K in Napa?

A $100,000 salary in Napa has the same purchasing power as $94,772 in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Napa and Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom?

Rents in Napa are indexed at 197.4 while Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom is at 130.2 (national average = 100). Napa 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.