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St. Cloud vs Farmington

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Farmington is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud.

0.1% more expensive

Farmington, NM is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud, MN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 87.7 vs 87.6). A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud buys about the same as $100,086 in Farmington; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 87.6 (St. Cloud) vs 87.7 (Farmington)
  • $100k in St. Cloud ≈ $100,086 purchasing power in Farmington
  • Services drives the gap (-10.8 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair MN:NM 87.6→87.7

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE MN × NM
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
  • 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.

St. Cloud
87.6
Cost Index
Farmington
87.7
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

St. Cloud, MN and Farmington, NM are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Farmington is 10.8 points lower. But services and 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.

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.

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 St. Cloud to $100,086 in Farmington, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
St. Cloud
87.6
Farmington
87.7
Goods
St. Cloud
95.4
Farmington
96.1
Services
St. Cloud
88.7
Farmington
77.9
Rents
St. Cloud
65.1
Farmington
56.6

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in St. Cloud would need to be in Farmington for the same purchasing power:

In St. Cloud In Farmington Difference
$50,000 $50,043 +$43
$75,000 $75,064 +$64
$100,000 $100,086 +$86
$150,000 $150,128 +$128
$ in St. Cloud = – in Farmington

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (87.6 → 87.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Farmington → St. Cloud St. Cloud Details Farmington Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Farmington more expensive than St. Cloud?

Farmington is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud. The overall cost index is 87.7 vs 87.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Farmington equals $100K in St. Cloud?

A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud has the same purchasing power as $100,086 in Farmington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between St. Cloud and Farmington?

Rents in St. Cloud are indexed at 65.1 while Farmington is at 56.6 (national average = 100). St. Cloud has higher rents.

Data sources

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.