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Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin vs Asheville

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Asheville is 0.2% more expensive than Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin.

0.2% more expensive

Asheville, NC is 0.2% more expensive than Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.5 vs 96.3). A $100,000 salary in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin buys about the same as $100,174 in Asheville; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 96.3 (Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin) vs 96.5 (Asheville)
  • $100k in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin ≈ $100,174 purchasing power in Asheville
  • Services drives the gap (+16.7 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair TN:NC 96.3→96.5

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE TN × NC
  • 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.

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin
96.3
Cost Index
Asheville
96.5
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN and Asheville, NC are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Asheville is 16.7 points higher. But rents 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 Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin to $100,174 in Asheville, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin
96.3
Asheville
96.5
Goods
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin
96.2
Asheville
96.6
Services
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin
72.0
Asheville
88.6
Rents
Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin
104.6
Asheville
93.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

How the Price Gap Changed

Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin and Asheville share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 1.3 to 0.2 RPP points. Asheville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (4.4 to 16.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin RPP Asheville RPP Relative Gap
2008 95.7 94.4 1.3 points Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin higher
2012 97.4 95.1 2.3 points Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin higher
2016 99.3 96.5 2.8 points Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin higher
2020 95.9 94.1 1.9 points Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin higher
2024 96.3 96.5 0.2 points Asheville 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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin would need to be in Asheville for the same purchasing power:

In Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin In Asheville Difference
$50,000 $50,087 +$87
$75,000 $75,131 +$131
$100,000 $100,174 +$174
$150,000 $150,262 +$262
$ in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin = – in Asheville

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (96.3 → 96.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Asheville → Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin Details Asheville Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Asheville more expensive than Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin?

Asheville is 0.2% more expensive than Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin. The overall cost index is 96.5 vs 96.3 (national average = 100).

What salary in Asheville equals $100K in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin?

A $100,000 salary in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin has the same purchasing power as $100,174 in Asheville. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin and Asheville?

Rents in Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin are indexed at 104.6 while Asheville is at 93.4 (national average = 100). Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin 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.