Overall
- St. Joseph
- 86.4
Diff -0.4 RPP
St. Joseph vs Brownsville-Harlingen
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.5% less expensive than St. Joseph.
0.5% less expensive
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX is 0.5% less expensive than St. Joseph, MO-KS on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 86.0 vs 86.4). A $100,000 salary in St. Joseph buys about the same as $99,529 in Brownsville-Harlingen; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 86.4 (St. Joseph) vs 86.0 (Brownsville-Harlingen)
- $100k in St. Joseph ≈ $99,529 purchasing power in Brownsville-Harlingen
- Services drives the gap (-7.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MO:TX 86.4→86.0
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MO × TX
- 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. Joseph
86.4
Cost Index
Brownsville-Harlingen
86.0
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
St. Joseph, MO-KS and Brownsville-Harlingen, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Brownsville-Harlingen is 7.1 points lower. 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.
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. Joseph to $99,529 in Brownsville-Harlingen, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- St. Joseph
- 94.2
Diff -0.4 RPP
Services
- St. Joseph
- 88.3
Diff -7.1 RPP
Rents
- St. Joseph
- 55.4
Diff +2.4 RPP
| Category | St. Joseph | Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 86.4 | 86.0 | -0.4 |
| Goods | 94.2 | 93.8 | -0.4 |
| Services | 88.3 | 81.2 | -7.1 |
| Rents | 55.4 | 57.7 | +2.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
St. Joseph 86.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 86.0
Goods
St. Joseph 94.2
Brownsville-Harlingen 93.8
Services
St. Joseph 88.3
Brownsville-Harlingen 81.2
Rents
St. Joseph 55.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 57.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
St. Joseph and Brownsville-Harlingen share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.5 to 0.4 RPP points. St. Joseph remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 22.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (20.0 to 2.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | St. Joseph RPP | Brownsville-Harlingen RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 92.6 | 85.0 | 7.5 points St. Joseph higher |
| 2012 | 91.0 | 89.2 | 1.7 points St. Joseph higher |
| 2016 | 88.7 | 89.5 | 0.9 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2020 | 87.8 | 85.0 | 2.7 points St. Joseph higher |
| 2024 | 86.4 | 86.0 | 0.4 points St. Joseph 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 St. Joseph would need to be in Brownsville-Harlingen for the same purchasing power:
| In St. Joseph | In Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,764 | $-236 |
| $75,000 | $74,647 | $-353 |
| $100,000 | $99,529 | $-471 |
| $150,000 | $149,293 | $-707 |
$ in St. Joseph = in Brownsville-Harlingen
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (86.4 → 86.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brownsville-Harlingen more expensive than St. Joseph?
Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.5% less expensive than St. Joseph. The overall cost index is 86.0 vs 86.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Brownsville-Harlingen equals $100K in St. Joseph?
A $100,000 salary in St. Joseph has the same purchasing power as $99,529 in Brownsville-Harlingen. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between St. Joseph and Brownsville-Harlingen?
Rents in St. Joseph are indexed at 55.4 while Brownsville-Harlingen is at 57.7 (national average = 100). Brownsville-Harlingen 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.