Overall
- Durham-Chapel Hill
- 97.6
Diff -0.1 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Durham-Chapel Hill is 0.1% less expensive than Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent.
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC is 0.1% less expensive than Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.6 vs 97.7). A $100,000 salary in Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent buys about the same as $99,852 in Durham-Chapel Hill; the largest component gap is services.
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:NC 97.7→97.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-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.
Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL and Durham-Chapel Hill, NC 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: Durham-Chapel Hill is 0.8 points higher. But services and goods and 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 Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent to $99,852 in Durham-Chapel Hill, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Diff -0.1 RPP
Diff +0.4 RPP
Diff +0.8 RPP
Diff +0.2 RPP
| Category | Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent | Durham-Chapel Hill | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.7 | 97.6 | -0.1 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.6 | +0.4 |
| Services | 88.5 | 89.3 | +0.8 |
| Rents | 98.8 | 98.9 | +0.2 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
What a salary in Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent would need to be in Durham-Chapel Hill for the same purchasing power:
| In Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent | In Durham-Chapel Hill | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,926 | $-74 |
| $75,000 | $74,889 | $-111 |
| $100,000 | $99,852 | $-148 |
| $150,000 | $149,777 | $-223 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.7 → 97.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Durham-Chapel Hill is 0.1% less expensive than Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent. The overall cost index is 97.6 vs 97.7 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent has the same purchasing power as $99,852 in Durham-Chapel Hill. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent are indexed at 98.8 while Durham-Chapel Hill is at 98.9 (national average = 100). Durham-Chapel Hill has higher rents.
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.