Overall
- New Orleans-Metairie
- 92.6
- Kansas City
- 92.5
Diff -0.1 RPP
New Orleans-Metairie vs Kansas City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kansas City is 0.1% less expensive than New Orleans-Metairie.
0.1% less expensive
Kansas City, MO-KS is 0.1% less expensive than New Orleans-Metairie, LA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 92.5 vs 92.6). A $100,000 salary in New Orleans-Metairie buys about the same as $99,942 in Kansas City; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 92.6 (New Orleans-Metairie) vs 92.5 (Kansas City)
- $100k in New Orleans-Metairie ≈ $99,942 purchasing power in Kansas City
- Services drives the gap (+17.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair LA:MO 92.6→92.5
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE LA × MO
- 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.
New Orleans-Metairie
92.6
Cost Index
Kansas City
92.5
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
New Orleans-Metairie, LA and Kansas City, MO-KS are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Kansas City is 17.8 points higher. But services and rents and goods 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 New Orleans-Metairie to $99,942 in Kansas City, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- New Orleans-Metairie
- 93.7
- Kansas City
- 94.1
Diff +0.4 RPP
Services
- New Orleans-Metairie
- 71.2
- Kansas City
- 89.0
Diff +17.8 RPP
Rents
- New Orleans-Metairie
- 86.0
- Kansas City
- 86.6
Diff +0.6 RPP
| Category | New Orleans-Metairie | Kansas City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 92.6 | 92.5 | -0.1 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 94.1 | +0.4 |
| Services | 71.2 | 89.0 | +17.8 |
| Rents | 86.0 | 86.6 | +0.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
New Orleans-Metairie 92.6
Kansas City 92.5
Goods
New Orleans-Metairie 93.7
Kansas City 94.1
Services
New Orleans-Metairie 71.2
Kansas City 89.0
Rents
New Orleans-Metairie 86.0
Kansas City 86.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
New Orleans-Metairie and Kansas City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.2 to 0.1 RPP points. New Orleans-Metairie remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 20.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.7 to 17.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | New Orleans-Metairie RPP | Kansas City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.2 | 93.1 | 5.2 points New Orleans-Metairie higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 96.9 | 1.0 points New Orleans-Metairie higher |
| 2016 | 98.2 | 97.2 | 1.0 points New Orleans-Metairie higher |
| 2020 | 95.7 | 95.0 | 0.7 points New Orleans-Metairie higher |
| 2024 | 92.6 | 92.5 | 0.1 points New Orleans-Metairie 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 New Orleans-Metairie would need to be in Kansas City for the same purchasing power:
| In New Orleans-Metairie | In Kansas City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,971 | $-29 |
| $75,000 | $74,956 | $-44 |
| $100,000 | $99,942 | $-58 |
| $150,000 | $149,913 | $-87 |
$ in New Orleans-Metairie = in Kansas City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (92.6 → 92.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kansas City more expensive than New Orleans-Metairie?
Kansas City is 0.1% less expensive than New Orleans-Metairie. The overall cost index is 92.5 vs 92.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Kansas City equals $100K in New Orleans-Metairie?
A $100,000 salary in New Orleans-Metairie has the same purchasing power as $99,942 in Kansas City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between New Orleans-Metairie and Kansas City?
Rents in New Orleans-Metairie are indexed at 86.0 while Kansas City is at 86.6 (national average = 100). Kansas City 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.