Overall
- Salem
- 103.6
Diff -5.6 RPP
Salem vs Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal is 5.4% less expensive than Salem.
5.4% less expensive
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC is 5.4% less expensive than Salem, OR on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.0 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Salem buys about the same as $94,566 in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Salem) vs 98.0 (Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal)
- $100k in Salem ≈ $94,566 purchasing power in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal
- Services drives the gap (-16.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair OR:SC 103.6→98.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE OR × SC
- 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
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC is 5.4% less expensive than Salem, OR, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salem is above 100 while Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal 16.6 points lower than Salem. 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 Salem to $94,566 in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Salem and Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.9 to 5.6 RPP points. Salem remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 26.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (17.0 to 9.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Salem RPP | Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.1 | 95.1 | 0.9 points Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal higher |
| 2012 | 101.1 | 93.6 | 7.5 points Salem higher |
| 2016 | 97.1 | 96.0 | 1.2 points Salem higher |
| 2020 | 100.9 | 93.6 | 7.4 points Salem higher |
| 2024 | 103.6 | 98.0 | 5.6 points Salem 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
- Salem
- 105.3
Diff -8.9 RPP
Services
- Salem
- 104.7
Diff -16.6 RPP
Rents
- Salem
- 110.3
Diff -9.1 RPP
| Category | Salem | Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 98.0 | -5.6 |
| Goods | 105.3 | 96.3 | -8.9 |
| Services | 104.7 | 88.1 | -16.6 |
| Rents | 110.3 | 101.2 | -9.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Salem 103.6
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal 98.0
Goods
Salem 105.3
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal 96.3
Services
Salem 104.7
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal 88.1
Rents
Salem 110.3
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal 101.2
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Salem would need to be in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal for the same purchasing power:
| In Salem | In Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,283 | $-2,717 |
| $75,000 | $70,925 | $-4,075 |
| $100,000 | $94,566 | $-5,434 |
| $150,000 | $141,849 | $-8,151 |
$ in Salem = in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 98.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Salem
103.6
Cost Index
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal
98.0
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal more expensive than Salem?
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal is 5.4% less expensive than Salem. The overall cost index is 98.0 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal equals $100K in Salem?
A $100,000 salary in Salem has the same purchasing power as $94,566 in Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Salem and Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal?
Rents in Salem are indexed at 110.3 while Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal is at 101.2 (national average = 100). Salem 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.