Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -7.0 RPP
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro vs Boise City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Boise City is 6.7% less expensive than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro.
6.7% less expensive
Boise City, ID is 6.7% less expensive than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 105.4). A $100,000 salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro buys about the same as $93,331 in Boise City; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 105.4 (Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro) vs 98.4 (Boise City)
- $100k in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro ≈ $93,331 purchasing power in Boise City
- Services drives the gap (-36.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair OR:ID 105.4→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE OR × ID
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Boise City, ID is 6.7% less expensive than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.0-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Boise City 36.3 points lower than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro to $93,331 in Boise City, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro and Boise City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 3.5 to 7.0 RPP points. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (20.2 to 36.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro RPP | Boise City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.7 | 95.3 | 3.5 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2012 | 104.3 | 96.7 | 7.7 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2016 | 101.5 | 93.2 | 8.4 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2020 | 105.8 | 93.6 | 12.2 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2024 | 105.4 | 98.4 | 7.0 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff -9.0 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff -36.3 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -19.5 RPP
| Category | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 105.4 | 98.4 | -7.0 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 96.2 | -9.0 |
| Services | 107.0 | 70.7 | -36.3 |
| Rents | 125.1 | 105.6 | -19.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 105.4
Boise City 98.4
Goods
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 105.2
Boise City 96.2
Services
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 107.0
Boise City 70.7
Rents
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 125.1
Boise City 105.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro would need to be in Boise City for the same purchasing power:
| In Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | In Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,666 | $-3,334 |
| $75,000 | $69,999 | $-5,001 |
| $100,000 | $93,331 | $-6,669 |
| $150,000 | $139,997 | $-10,003 |
$ in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro = in Boise City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (105.4 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
105.4
Cost Index
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Boise City more expensive than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro?
Boise City is 6.7% less expensive than Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 105.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Boise City equals $100K in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro?
A $100,000 salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro has the same purchasing power as $93,331 in Boise City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro and Boise City?
Rents in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro are indexed at 125.1 while Boise City is at 105.6 (national average = 100). Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 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.