Overall
- Santa Fe
- 98.8
Diff +4.3 RPP
Santa Fe vs Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.4% more expensive than Santa Fe.
4.4% more expensive
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.4% more expensive than Santa Fe, NM on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.1 vs 98.8). A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe buys about the same as $104,377 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.8 (Santa Fe) vs 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
- $100k in Santa Fe ≈ $104,377 purchasing power in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
- Services drives the gap (+14.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NM:TX 98.8→103.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE NM × TX
- 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
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.4% more expensive than Santa Fe, NM, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.3-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is above 100 while Santa Fe is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 14.0 points higher than Santa Fe. 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 Santa Fe to $104,377 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Santa Fe and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 3.4 to 4.3 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 (0.2 to 9.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Santa Fe RPP | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.0 | 101.4 | 3.4 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2012 | 102.1 | 100.8 | 1.3 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2016 | 98.4 | 98.0 | 0.4 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2020 | 96.6 | 104.5 | 7.9 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 98.8 | 103.1 | 4.3 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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
- Santa Fe
- 96.1
Diff +6.7 RPP
Services
- Santa Fe
- 76.7
Diff +14.0 RPP
Rents
- Santa Fe
- 108.0
Diff +9.9 RPP
| Category | Santa Fe | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.8 | 103.1 | +4.3 |
| Goods | 96.1 | 102.8 | +6.7 |
| Services | 76.7 | 90.7 | +14.0 |
| Rents | 108.0 | 117.9 | +9.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Santa Fe 98.8
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Goods
Santa Fe 96.1
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Services
Santa Fe 76.7
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Rents
Santa Fe 108.0
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Santa Fe would need to be in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington for the same purchasing power:
| In Santa Fe | In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,188 | +$2,188 |
| $75,000 | $78,283 | +$3,283 |
| $100,000 | $104,377 | +$4,377 |
| $150,000 | $156,565 | +$6,565 |
$ in Santa Fe = in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.8 → 103.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington more expensive than Santa Fe?
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.4% more expensive than Santa Fe. The overall cost index is 103.1 vs 98.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington equals $100K in Santa Fe?
A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe has the same purchasing power as $104,377 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Santa Fe and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Rents in Santa Fe are indexed at 108.0 while Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is at 117.9 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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.