Overall
- Santa Fe
- 98.8
- Lexington Park
- 100.8
Diff +2.0 RPP
Santa Fe vs Lexington Park
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lexington Park is 2% more expensive than Santa Fe.
2% more expensive
Lexington Park, MD is 2% more expensive than Santa Fe, NM on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.8 vs 98.8). A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe buys about the same as $102,018 in Lexington Park; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.8 (Santa Fe) vs 100.8 (Lexington Park)
- $100k in Santa Fe ≈ $102,018 purchasing power in Lexington Park
- Services drives the gap (+29.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NM:MD 98.8→100.8
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NM × MD
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
Lexington Park
100.8
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Santa Fe, NM and Lexington Park, MD are a photo finish on overall price level, only 2.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Lexington Park is 29.7 points higher. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Lexington Park is above 100 while Santa Fe is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 $102,018 in Lexington Park, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Santa Fe
- 96.1
- Lexington Park
- 99.7
Diff +3.5 RPP
Services
- Santa Fe
- 76.7
- Lexington Park
- 106.4
Diff +29.7 RPP
Rents
- Santa Fe
- 108.0
- Lexington Park
- 103.8
Diff -4.2 RPP
| Category | Santa Fe | Lexington Park | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.8 | 100.8 | +2.0 |
| Goods | 96.1 | 99.7 | +3.5 |
| Services | 76.7 | 106.4 | +29.7 |
| Rents | 108.0 | 103.8 | -4.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Santa Fe 98.8
Lexington Park 100.8
Goods
Santa Fe 96.1
Lexington Park 99.7
Services
Santa Fe 76.7
Lexington Park 106.4
Rents
Santa Fe 108.0
Lexington Park 103.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Santa Fe and Lexington Park share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.0 to 2.0 RPP points. Lexington Park remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (12.4 to 4.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Santa Fe RPP | Lexington Park RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.0 | 103.0 | 5.0 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2012 | 102.1 | 102.6 | 0.5 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2016 | 98.4 | 103.3 | 4.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2020 | 96.6 | 101.4 | 4.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2024 | 98.8 | 100.8 | 2.0 points Lexington Park 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Santa Fe would need to be in Lexington Park for the same purchasing power:
| In Santa Fe | In Lexington Park | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,009 | +$1,009 |
| $75,000 | $76,513 | +$1,513 |
| $100,000 | $102,018 | +$2,018 |
| $150,000 | $153,027 | +$3,027 |
$ in Santa Fe = in Lexington Park
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.8 → 100.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lexington Park more expensive than Santa Fe?
Lexington Park is 2% more expensive than Santa Fe. The overall cost index is 100.8 vs 98.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lexington Park equals $100K in Santa Fe?
A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe has the same purchasing power as $102,018 in Lexington Park. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Santa Fe and Lexington Park?
Rents in Santa Fe are indexed at 108.0 while Lexington Park is at 103.8 (national average = 100). Santa Fe 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.