Santa Fe vs Binghamton

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Binghamton is 6% less expensive than Santa Fe.

6% less expensive

Binghamton, NY is 6% less expensive than Santa Fe, NM on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 92.9 vs 98.8). A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe buys about the same as $94,022 in Binghamton; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 98.8 (Santa Fe) vs 92.9 (Binghamton)
  • $100k in Santa Fe ≈ $94,022 purchasing power in Binghamton
  • Services drives the gap (+54.9 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair NM:NY 98.8→92.9

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE NM × NY
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 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

Visual Comparison

Overall
Santa Fe
98.8
Binghamton
92.9
Goods
Santa Fe
96.1
Binghamton
99.7
Services
Santa Fe
76.7
Binghamton
131.6
Rents
Santa Fe
108.0
Binghamton
69.7

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Services creates the largest separation: Binghamton is 54.9 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Binghamton, NY is 6% less expensive than Santa Fe, NM, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.9-point overall gap.

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.

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 Santa Fe to $94,022 in Binghamton, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
Binghamton
92.9
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Santa Fe would need to be in Binghamton for the same purchasing power:

In Santa Fe In Binghamton Difference
$50,000 $47,011 $-2,989
$75,000 $70,517 $-4,483
$100,000 $94,022 $-5,978
$150,000 $141,033 $-8,967
$ in Santa Fe = in Binghamton

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.8 → 92.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

How the Price Gap Changed

Santa Fe and Binghamton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.0 to 5.9 RPP points. Santa Fe remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 9.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (28.6 to 38.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Santa Fe RPP Binghamton RPP Relative Gap
2008 98.0 97.0 1.0 points Santa Fe higher
2012 102.1 94.9 7.2 points Santa Fe higher
2016 98.4 96.1 2.4 points Santa Fe higher
2020 96.6 96.9 0.3 points Binghamton higher
2024 98.8 92.9 5.9 points Santa Fe 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 Binghamton more expensive than Santa Fe?

Binghamton is 6% less expensive than Santa Fe. The overall cost index is 92.9 vs 98.8 (national average = 100).

What salary in Binghamton equals $100K in Santa Fe?

A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe has the same purchasing power as $94,022 in Binghamton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Santa Fe and Binghamton?

Rents in Santa Fe are indexed at 108.0 while Binghamton is at 69.7 (national average = 100). Santa Fe has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.