What it costs to live in Idaho
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-8.57%
below average
Housing
-13.27%
ranks 25 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$91
costs this here
Price rank
36
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Idaho
- Things cost less in Idaho than they do nationally — about 8.57% less, on ordinary shopping. A hundred dollars of typical spending comes to $91 here, and the state sits at 36 in the national price ranking. That is a real advantage, and it is the one people forget to count when they compare two job offers by salary alone.
- In Idaho the parts agree with each other. Housing is about 13.27% from the national average, and prices in general are about 8.57% from it. Most states are not like this — usually rent is off doing something dramatic while everything else stays put. Here the overall number tells you the truth about both.
- What does that do to a salary? Seventy-five thousand dollars, earned and spent in Idaho, goes as far as $82,034 would at average American prices. Tax is a separate subject and comes out on top of this.
- Idaho carries an all-items price parity about 8.57% below the national level, ranking 36 nationally for overall price level. A basket costing one hundred dollars at national average prices costs $91 here. Lower parities raise the real value of a given nominal income, which is why comparing offers across states on gross salary alone systematically favors high-price metros.
- Shelter and general prices move together in Idaho: a housing parity about 13.27% from national against an all-items figure of about 8.57%, differing by about 4.7%, with housing ranking 25. Convergence of this kind is uncommon, since non-tradable shelter usually absorbs local supply conditions that tradeable goods arbitrage away. Its practical effect is that tenure does not materially change how this state's cost of living is experienced.
- Adjusting seventy-five thousand dollars for Idaho's all-items parity yields $82,034 in constant national purchasing power. ⚠️ The figure is pre-tax and price-only; income, sales and local taxes are additional and independent of the parity. Nominal wage levels also correlate with parities in practice, so a full comparison of two states requires the local salary for the same role alongside this adjustment.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $58,471 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 91.425 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 86.728 |
| Cheapest place to live | 16th of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Idaho | $58,471 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$572 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing86.728
- Goods93.992
- Services93.049
| Housing | 86.728 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 93.992 |
| Services | 93.049 |
| All items | 91.425 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 27th of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Idaho on take-home | 35th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 20th |
| Places moved | 15 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Idaho against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Idaho | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,471 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $63,955 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 22.04% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 6% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | No | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.49% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 91.4 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 86.7 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 32¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $0.57 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Idaho, Statewide average; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $70,563 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$790 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 91 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Idaho with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -13.27% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -6.01% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -6.95% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -8.57% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Idaho prices, buys what $82,034 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Idaho, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Idaho charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Idaho.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Idaho will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Idaho to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
More from the same money. Prices in Idaho sit below the national level, so every hundred dollars spent covers $91 of national-average goods. That is why a smaller salary here can leave you better off than a larger one somewhere expensive.
Is this number a percentage?
It is an index rather than a rate. One hundred is the national average by construction, so the distance from it is measured in points, not percent.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Almost entirely housing. The goods component sits close to the national average here, so the gap you feel is rent and property rather than the supermarket.
Does the overall figure tell me what housing costs here?
Not reliably in Idaho. It sits 36 of 51 overall but 25 on housing alone — far enough apart that the headline number hides the thing most people are actually deciding about.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Idaho's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $91 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How should a regional price parity be interpreted?
Regional price parities are index numbers with the national average normalized to one hundred. Differences are expressed in index points and are comparative rather than proportional to any specific price. They are estimated from a fixed national consumption basket, so they do not reflect state-specific spending patterns.
Which component drives this state's parity?
The housing parity dominates Idaho's all-items figure, diverging from the national average by more than twice the goods component. Tradeable goods arbitrage across state lines and therefore cluster near parity; housing is non-tradeable, so its parity spans a far wider range and drives most interstate variation in the headline index.
Why does this state's housing rank diverge from its all-items rank?
Idaho ranks 36 of 51 on all items but 25 on the housing component. Because the all-items index weights housing at its national expenditure share rather than at the household's own, the headline figure understates housing divergence for renters and recent buyers, whose shelter share exceeds the national average.