Overall
Diff -2.9 RPP
Salem vs Kingston
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kingston is 2.8% less expensive than Salem.
2.8% less expensive
Kingston, NY is 2.8% less expensive than Salem, OR on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.7 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Salem buys about the same as $97,164 in Kingston; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Salem) vs 100.7 (Kingston)
- $100k in Salem ≈ $97,164 purchasing power in Kingston
- Services drives the gap (+28.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair OR:NY 103.6→100.7
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE OR × NY
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-ABOVE Both above 100
- 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 -5.6 RPP
Services
Diff +28.9 RPP
Rents
Diff -0.2 RPP
| Category | Salem | Kingston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 100.7 | -2.9 |
| Goods | 105.3 | 99.7 | -5.6 |
| Services | 104.7 | 133.6 | +28.9 |
| Rents | 110.3 | 110.2 | -0.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Salem 103.6
Kingston 100.7
Goods
Salem 105.3
Kingston 99.7
Services
Salem 104.7
Kingston 133.6
Rents
Salem 110.3
Kingston 110.2
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Kingston is 28.9 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Kingston, NY is 2.8% less expensive than Salem, OR, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.9-point overall gap.
Both metros exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.
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 $97,164 in Kingston, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Salem
103.6
Cost Index
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Salem would need to be in Kingston for the same purchasing power:
| In Salem | In Kingston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,582 | $-1,418 |
| $75,000 | $72,873 | $-2,127 |
| $100,000 | $97,164 | $-2,836 |
| $150,000 | $145,745 | $-4,255 |
$ in Salem = in Kingston
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 100.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Salem and Kingston share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 13.0 to 2.9 RPP points. Salem remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 56.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (56.6 to 0.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Salem RPP | Kingston RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.1 | 107.1 | 13.0 points Kingston higher |
| 2012 | 101.1 | 102.0 | 1.0 points Kingston higher |
| 2016 | 97.1 | 101.2 | 4.1 points Kingston higher |
| 2020 | 100.9 | 101.6 | 0.6 points Kingston higher |
| 2024 | 103.6 | 100.7 | 2.9 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kingston more expensive than Salem?
Kingston is 2.8% less expensive than Salem. The overall cost index is 100.7 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Kingston equals $100K in Salem?
A $100,000 salary in Salem has the same purchasing power as $97,164 in Kingston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Salem and Kingston?
Rents in Salem are indexed at 110.3 while Kingston is at 110.2 (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.