Overall
- Asheville
- 96.5
Diff -3.5 RPP
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville vs Asheville
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Asheville is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.
3.5% less expensive
Asheville, NC is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.5 vs 100.0). A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville buys about the same as $96,501 in Asheville; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville) vs 96.5 (Asheville)
- $100k in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville ≈ $96,501 purchasing power in Asheville
- Rents drives the gap (-18.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:NC 100.0→96.5
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE FL × NC
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Asheville
- 96.6
Diff +0.4 RPP
Services
- Asheville
- 88.6
Diff +0.6 RPP
Rents
- Asheville
- 93.4
Diff -18.4 RPP
| Category | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Asheville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.0 | 96.5 | -3.5 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.6 | +0.4 |
| Services | 88.1 | 88.6 | +0.6 |
| Rents | 111.7 | 93.4 | -18.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Asheville 96.5
Goods
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Asheville 96.6
Services
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Asheville 88.6
Rents
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Asheville 93.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Asheville is 18.4 points lower. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Asheville, NC is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is above 100 while Asheville is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville corresponds to $96,501 in Asheville.
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
Asheville
96.5
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville would need to be in Asheville for the same purchasing power:
| In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | In Asheville | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,251 | $-1,749 |
| $75,000 | $72,376 | $-2,624 |
| $100,000 | $96,501 | $-3,499 |
| $150,000 | $144,752 | $-5,248 |
$ in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville = in Asheville
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.0 → 96.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Asheville share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.6 to 3.5 RPP points. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (10.7 to 0.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville RPP | Asheville RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.9 | 94.4 | 5.6 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2012 | 98.0 | 95.1 | 2.9 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2016 | 98.8 | 96.5 | 2.3 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2020 | 96.8 | 94.1 | 2.7 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2024 | 100.0 | 96.5 | 3.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 Asheville more expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Asheville is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. The overall cost index is 96.5 vs 100.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Asheville equals $100K in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville has the same purchasing power as $96,501 in Asheville. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Asheville?
Rents in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville are indexed at 111.7 while Asheville is at 93.4 (national average = 100). Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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.