Overall
Diff -4.5 RPP
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville vs Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood is 4.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.
4.5% less expensive
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI is 4.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 95.5 vs 100.0). A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville buys about the same as $95,541 in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville) vs 95.5 (Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood)
- $100k in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville ≈ $95,541 purchasing power in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
- Rents drives the gap (-25.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:MI 100.0→95.5
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE FL × MI
- 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
Diff -2.5 RPP
Services
Diff +5.7 RPP
Rents
Diff -25.1 RPP
| Category | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.0 | 95.5 | -4.5 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 93.7 | -2.5 |
| Services | 88.1 | 93.8 | +5.7 |
| Rents | 111.7 | 86.6 | -25.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 95.5
Goods
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.7
Services
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 93.8
Rents
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 86.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood is 25.1 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI is 4.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is above 100 while Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood 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 $95,541 in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood.
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
95.5
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville would need to be in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood for the same purchasing power:
| In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | In Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,771 | $-2,229 |
| $75,000 | $71,656 | $-3,344 |
| $100,000 | $95,541 | $-4,459 |
| $150,000 | $143,312 | $-6,688 |
$ in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville = in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.0 → 95.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 4.3 to 4.5 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 8.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.8 to 5.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville RPP | Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.9 | 95.6 | 4.3 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2012 | 98.0 | 94.7 | 3.3 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2016 | 98.8 | 94.2 | 4.6 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2020 | 96.8 | 94.3 | 2.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2024 | 100.0 | 95.5 | 4.5 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 Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood more expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood is 4.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. The overall cost index is 95.5 vs 100.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood equals $100K in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville has the same purchasing power as $95,541 in Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood?
Rents in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville are indexed at 111.7 while Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood is at 86.6 (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.