Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff -2.5 RPP
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater vs Boise City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Boise City is 2.5% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
2.5% less expensive
Boise City, ID is 2.5% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater buys about the same as $97,523 in Boise City; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater) vs 98.4 (Boise City)
- $100k in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ≈ $97,523 purchasing power in Boise City
- Rents drives the gap (-20.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:ID 100.9→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE FL × ID
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff +0.7 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff -17.8 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff -20.3 RPP
| Category | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.4 | -2.5 |
| Goods | 95.5 | 96.2 | +0.7 |
| Services | 88.5 | 70.7 | -17.8 |
| Rents | 125.8 | 105.6 | -20.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 100.9
Boise City 98.4
Goods
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 95.5
Boise City 96.2
Services
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 88.5
Boise City 70.7
Rents
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 125.8
Boise City 105.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Boise City is 20.3 points lower. But goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Boise City, ID is 2.5% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater corresponds to $97,523 in Boise City.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
100.9
Cost Index
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater would need to be in Boise City for the same purchasing power:
| In Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | In Boise City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,762 | $-1,238 |
| $75,000 | $73,142 | $-1,858 |
| $100,000 | $97,523 | $-2,477 |
| $150,000 | $146,285 | $-3,715 |
$ in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater = in Boise City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Boise City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.0 to 2.5 RPP points. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (29.6 to 17.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater RPP | Boise City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.3 | 95.3 | 8.0 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2012 | 100.3 | 96.7 | 3.6 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2016 | 97.1 | 93.2 | 3.9 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 93.6 | 7.7 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.4 | 2.5 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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 Boise City more expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater?
Boise City is 2.5% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Boise City equals $100K in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater?
A $100,000 salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater has the same purchasing power as $97,523 in Boise City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Boise City?
Rents in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater are indexed at 125.8 while Boise City is at 105.6 (national average = 100). Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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.