Overall
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
- Santa Fe
- 98.8
Diff -2.1 RPP
Salt Lake City-Murray vs Santa Fe
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Santa Fe is 2.1% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray.
2.1% less expensive
Santa Fe, NM is 2.1% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.8 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray buys about the same as $97,917 in Santa Fe; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray) vs 98.8 (Santa Fe)
- $100k in Salt Lake City-Murray ≈ $97,917 purchasing power in Santa Fe
- Rents drives the gap (-15.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair UT:NM 100.9→98.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE UT × NM
- RENT-LED Rent-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-PAR PP near-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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Salt Lake City-Murray would need to be in Santa Fe for the same purchasing power:
| In Salt Lake City-Murray | In Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,959 | $-1,041 |
| $75,000 | $73,438 | $-1,562 |
| $100,000 | $97,917 | $-2,083 |
| $150,000 | $146,876 | $-3,124 |
$ in Salt Lake City-Murray = in Santa Fe
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Santa Fe, NM is 2.1% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.1-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salt Lake City-Murray is above 100 while Santa Fe is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Rents leads the difference, with Santa Fe 15.3 points lower than Salt Lake City-Murray. 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 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 Salt Lake City-Murray corresponds to $97,917 in Santa Fe.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Santa Fe
- 96.1
Diff -0.3 RPP
Services
- Santa Fe
- 76.7
Diff -2.3 RPP
Rents
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
- Santa Fe
- 108.0
Diff -15.3 RPP
| Category | Salt Lake City-Murray | Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.8 | -2.1 |
| Goods | 96.4 | 96.1 | -0.3 |
| Services | 79.0 | 76.7 | -2.3 |
| Rents | 123.3 | 108.0 | -15.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Santa Fe 98.8
Goods
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Santa Fe 96.1
Services
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Santa Fe 76.7
Rents
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Santa Fe 108.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
How the Price Gap Changed
Salt Lake City-Murray and Santa Fe share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.5 to 2.1 RPP points. Salt Lake City-Murray remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (14.0 to 2.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Santa Fe RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.5 | 98.0 | 0.5 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2012 | 102.2 | 102.1 | 0.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 98.3 | 98.4 | 0.1 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2020 | 97.3 | 96.6 | 0.7 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.8 | 2.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray 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 Santa Fe more expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray?
Santa Fe is 2.1% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray. The overall cost index is 98.8 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Santa Fe equals $100K in Salt Lake City-Murray?
A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray has the same purchasing power as $97,917 in Santa Fe. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Salt Lake City-Murray and Santa Fe?
Rents in Salt Lake City-Murray are indexed at 123.3 while Santa Fe is at 108.0 (national average = 100). Salt Lake City-Murray 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.