Overall
106.4
Above avg
Metro cost profile · 2024 BEA RPP
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
Cost-of-living indicators for Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA, from Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, overall, goods, services, and rents vs the U.S. average of 100.
- 106.4
- Overall RPP
- #23
- of 387 metros
- 129.3
- Rents RPP
- $94K
- $100K national buys
Riverside ranks #23 of 387 U.S. metros by cost, and its overall price index has held steady since 2008.
- stable since 2008
- similar cost to Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom
The verdict
Riverside is more expensive than 94% of U.S. metros, an overall cost index of 106.4, 6.4% above the national average, led by services at 148.6.
- top 6%
- by overall cost, nationwide
- 101.4
- goods RPP, tradable items
- 148.6
- services RPP, labor-priced
A $100,000 national salary carries the purchasing power of about $93,948 here; matching a $100K lifestyle takes roughly $106,442.
Riverside vs every U.S. metro
Where this metro sits in the national cost distribution
106 Top 6% higher than 94% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities · 2024
Riverside cost breakdown
BEA RPP by category, 100 = national average
- Rents
Rents
129.3 RPP
- Services
Services
148.6 RPP
- Overall
Overall
106.4 RPP
- Goods
Goods
101.4 RPP
What this shows Riverside's strongest departure is services at 148.6; rents follows at 129.3. Labor-priced local activity, rather than housing alone, is the first budget line to investigate.
Goods vs. housing, where Riverside's cost comes from
Metros near Riverside's overall cost, plotted by their goods price (horizontal) and housing price (vertical). Same headline RPP, very different structures.
Read the chart as text
- Riverside (Riverside, this metro): goods RPP 101.4, rents RPP 129.3
- Sacramento: goods RPP 105.2, rents RPP 130.2
- Bridgeport: goods RPP 97.3, rents RPP 150.5
- Denver: goods RPP 101, rents RPP 146.9
- Manchester: goods RPP 97.7, rents RPP 134.2
- Bremerton: goods RPP 105, rents RPP 129.6
- Portland: goods RPP 105.2, rents RPP 125.1
Price Index Summary
Goods
101.4
Above avg
Services
148.6
Expensive
Rents
129.3
Expensive
Service-cost-led profile
How Riverside's cost structure works
Services are the defining pressure in Riverside: the BEA services component is 148.6, farther above the national baseline than local rents or tradable goods. That service-heavy pattern explains an overall RPP of 106.4 differently from a housing-led metro.
Across all reported metros, the closest component-profile matches are Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA, New Haven, CT, Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA. They resemble Riverside across goods, services, and rents together, so they are stronger structure peers than a place selected only because its overall RPP happens to be nearby.
Across 2008-2024, Riverside's overall index has stayed within 0.1 points. This is a relative price-level history, not a prediction or a personal affordability recommendation; pair it with current local wages and housing options before making a decision.
Salary Equivalent
A $100,000 salary at the national average cost of living equals:
$106,442
in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA purchasing power
$50,000 nationally
$53,221
$75,000 nationally
$79,832
$125,000 nationally
$133,053
$150,000 nationally
$159,663
$200,000 nationally
$212,884
Use the salary calculator for custom amounts.
Affordability score
F
7/100
How far the median local paycheck goes here, combining income and housing cost
Purchasing power
Not reported
Housing affordability F
7th percentile
A weighted composite (60% purchasing power, 40% housing affordability) percentile-ranked against every other tracked metro; a missing input redistributes its weight rather than deflating the score. Sources: Census ACS 5-Year 2023 (income) + BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 (cost). Vintages differ by design; see methodology.
Latest BEA release change
What changed from 2023 to 2024
Riverside's overall RPP fell -0.9 points, from 107.3 in 2023 to 106.4 in 2024. The largest category movement was services, changing from 164.3 to 148.6. This is a relative change against the national benchmark, not a household's dollar bill.
RPP History (2008-2024)
The cost of living has remained relatively stable, changing by only 0.1 points over this period. The largest single-year move was in 2018, when the index jumped 3.2 points from the year before, a bigger swing than the full 2008-2024 change.
Riverside overall RPP, 2008-2024
Every year on record, national average = 100
| Year | Overall |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 106.3 |
| 2009 | 106.2 |
| 2010 | 105.2 |
| 2011 | 104.6 |
| 2012 | 104.5 |
| 2013 | 105.7 |
| 2014 | 107.1 |
| 2015 | 107.1 |
| 2016 | 105.6 |
| 2017 | 102.8 |
| 2018 | 106.0 |
| 2019 | 105.7 |
| 2020 | 104.4 |
| 2021 | 105.6 |
| 2022 | 106.7 |
| 2023 | 107.3 |
| 2024 | 106.4 |
Decision peers
Metros with a similar cost mix
These metros are closest to Riverside's combined goods, services, and rents profile. They may not have the same overall RPP, but their price pressures are shaped in a similar way.
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA
Goods 105.2 · Services 151.3 · Rents 130.2 New Haven, CT
Goods 97.3 · Services 144.8 · Rents 124.3 Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
Goods 105.2 · Services 154.8 · Rents 139.6 Vallejo, CA
Goods 105.2 · Services 155.0 · Rents 142.0 San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
Goods 105.2 · Services 147.8 · Rents 144.4 Manchester-Nashua, NH
Goods 97.7 · Services 133.5 · Rents 134.2
Metros with Similar Cost of Living
These metros have an overall RPP closest to Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA's index of 106.4.
Showing the 6 closest of 387 metro areas tracked nationally.
CA-relative analysis
Goods prices places Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA near the bottom of CA's metros
Among the 25 CA metros PlainCost tracks with reported goods prices data, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA ranks #25 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide rank above: it compares Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA only against its own state's metros, not the full US field.
Goods prices
#25 of 25
0th percentile in CA
Services prices
#24 of 25
4th percentile in CA
Rent prices
#14 of 25
44th percentile in CA
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "more expensive is worse", see the national comparison above for direction context. This is a comparison within CA only, not a livability score.
Nationwide metros with similar overall cost or rent prices
Two BEA RPP-derived peer sets for Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA: nearest metros by overall regional price parity and by rents RPP. These are cross-state neighborhoods, not the in-state metro list below.
Similar overall RPP
Nearest metros by overall regional price parity (106.4 here).
Similar rents RPP
Nearest metros by rents regional price parity (129.3 here).
Naples-Marco Island, FL Rents 129.4 Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Rents 129.6 Ithaca, NY Rents 128.4 North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL Rents 128.0 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Rents 125.8 Ann Arbor, MI Rents 125.3 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Rents 125.1 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL Rents 125.1
Other CA Metros
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 115.6 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 113.6 Napa, CA 112.6 San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA 111.9 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 110.5 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 110.4
View all CA metros → Cheapest in CA → Most expensive in CA →
Compare to Other Metros
Cost of living guides →, cheapest and most-expensive metro rankings, salary negotiation with RPP data, and step-by-step comparison walkthroughs.
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What this means for Riverside
How to read Riverside's cost of living before a move, a job offer, or a budget.
- Budget to local prices, not headline pay, a $100K national salary spends like about $93,948 in Riverside. Salary calculator
- Start with services: it indexes at 148.6, the largest departure from the national benchmark in this metro's BEA cost mix. Compare it with the other components before treating the overall RPP as a complete household budget.
- Compare Riverside head-to-head against a specific destination before you decide. Compare metros
RPP is BEA's annual price-level benchmark for the data year shown, not a live market quote. Pair it with current local wages and housing costs before deciding.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cost of living in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA?
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA has a Regional Price Parity (RPP) index of 106.4, meaning it is 6.4% more expensive than the national average. Goods are indexed at 101.4, services at 148.6, and rents at 129.3. It ranks #23 out of 387 U.S. metro areas by overall cost.
What salary do I need in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA to match $100K nationally?
To maintain the same purchasing power as a $100,000 salary at the national average, you would need approximately $106,442 in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA. Conversely, $100K earned in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA has the purchasing power of $93,948 at the national average.
How expensive is rent in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA?
Rents in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA are indexed at 129.3, which is 29.3% above the national average. This is significantly higher than typical U.S. rents.
Is Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA getting more expensive?
From 2008 to 2024, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA's overall cost index changed by +0.1 points (from 106.3 to 106.4). The cost of living has remained relatively stable.
What costs the most in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA?
The priciest category in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA is services at 148.6, 48.6% above the national average. The most affordable category is goods at 101.4, 1.4% above average, still the lowest of the three categories.
What metros have a similar cost of living to Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA?
Metros with the most similar overall cost index include Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, Denver-Aurora-Centennial. These areas have RPP values within a few points of Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA's 106.4.
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.