Overall
- Santa Fe
- 98.8
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
Diff +2.1 RPP
Santa Fe vs Salt Lake City-Murray
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.1% more expensive than Santa Fe.
2.1% more expensive
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.1% more expensive than Santa Fe, NM on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.9 vs 98.8). A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe buys about the same as $102,127 in Salt Lake City-Murray; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.8 (Santa Fe) vs 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray)
- $100k in Santa Fe ≈ $102,127 purchasing power in Salt Lake City-Murray
- Rents drives the gap (+15.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NM:UT 98.8→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE NM × UT
- 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 Santa Fe would need to be in Salt Lake City-Murray for the same purchasing power:
| In Santa Fe | In Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,064 | +$1,064 |
| $75,000 | $76,595 | +$1,595 |
| $100,000 | $102,127 | +$2,127 |
| $150,000 | $153,191 | +$3,191 |
$ in Santa Fe = in Salt Lake City-Murray
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.8 → 100.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.1% more expensive than Santa Fe, NM, 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 Salt Lake City-Murray 15.3 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 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 Santa Fe corresponds to $102,127 in Salt Lake City-Murray.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Santa Fe
- 96.1
Diff +0.3 RPP
Services
- Santa Fe
- 76.7
Diff +2.3 RPP
Rents
- Santa Fe
- 108.0
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
Diff +15.3 RPP
| Category | Santa Fe | Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.8 | 100.9 | +2.1 |
| Goods | 96.1 | 96.4 | +0.3 |
| Services | 76.7 | 79.0 | +2.3 |
| Rents | 108.0 | 123.3 | +15.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Santa Fe 98.8
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Goods
Santa Fe 96.1
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Services
Santa Fe 76.7
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Rents
Santa Fe 108.0
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
How the Price Gap Changed
Santa Fe and Salt Lake City-Murray 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 | Santa Fe RPP | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.0 | 98.5 | 0.5 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2012 | 102.1 | 102.2 | 0.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 98.4 | 98.3 | 0.1 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2020 | 96.6 | 97.3 | 0.7 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2024 | 98.8 | 100.9 | 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 Salt Lake City-Murray more expensive than Santa Fe?
Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.1% more expensive than Santa Fe. The overall cost index is 100.9 vs 98.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Salt Lake City-Murray equals $100K in Santa Fe?
A $100,000 salary in Santa Fe has the same purchasing power as $102,127 in Salt Lake City-Murray. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Santa Fe and Salt Lake City-Murray?
Rents in Santa Fe are indexed at 108.0 while Salt Lake City-Murray is at 123.3 (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.