Overall
Diff -5.5 RPP
Yuba City vs Santa Fe
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Santa Fe is 5.2% less expensive than Yuba City.
5.2% less expensive
Santa Fe, NM is 5.2% less expensive than Yuba City, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.8 vs 104.2). A $100,000 salary in Yuba City buys about the same as $94,756 in Santa Fe; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 104.2 (Yuba City) vs 98.8 (Santa Fe)
- $100k in Yuba City ≈ $94,756 purchasing power in Santa Fe
- Services drives the gap (-84.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:NM 104.2→98.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × NM
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Santa Fe, NM is 5.2% less expensive than Yuba City, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Yuba City is above 100 while Santa Fe is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Santa Fe 84.1 points lower than Yuba City. 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Yuba City to $94,756 in Santa Fe, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Yuba City and Santa Fe share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.2 to 5.5 RPP points. Yuba City remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 66.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (18.1 to 84.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Yuba City RPP | Santa Fe RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.8 | 98.0 | 0.2 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2012 | 102.2 | 102.1 | 0.1 points Yuba City higher |
| 2016 | 97.6 | 98.4 | 0.8 points Santa Fe higher |
| 2020 | 102.0 | 96.6 | 5.4 points Yuba City higher |
| 2024 | 104.2 | 98.8 | 5.5 points Yuba City 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -9.0 RPP
Services
Diff -84.1 RPP
Rents
Diff -0.3 RPP
| Category | Yuba City | Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104.2 | 98.8 | -5.5 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 96.1 | -9.0 |
| Services | 160.8 | 76.7 | -84.1 |
| Rents | 108.3 | 108.0 | -0.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Yuba City 104.2
Santa Fe 98.8
Goods
Yuba City 105.2
Santa Fe 96.1
Services
Yuba City 160.8
Santa Fe 76.7
Rents
Yuba City 108.3
Santa Fe 108.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Yuba City would need to be in Santa Fe for the same purchasing power:
| In Yuba City | In Santa Fe | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,378 | $-2,622 |
| $75,000 | $71,067 | $-3,933 |
| $100,000 | $94,756 | $-5,244 |
| $150,000 | $142,134 | $-7,866 |
$ in Yuba City = in Santa Fe
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (104.2 → 98.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Yuba City
104.2
Cost Index
Santa Fe
98.8
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Santa Fe more expensive than Yuba City?
Santa Fe is 5.2% less expensive than Yuba City. The overall cost index is 98.8 vs 104.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Santa Fe equals $100K in Yuba City?
A $100,000 salary in Yuba City has the same purchasing power as $94,756 in Santa Fe. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Yuba City and Santa Fe?
Rents in Yuba City are indexed at 108.3 while Santa Fe is at 108.0 (national average = 100). Yuba City 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.