What it costs to live in Iowa
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-11.23%
below average
Housing
-34%
ranks 43 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$89
costs this here
Price rank
45
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Iowa
- Things cost less in Iowa than they do nationally — about 11.23% less, on ordinary shopping. A hundred dollars of typical spending comes to $89 here, and the state sits at 45 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.
- Look at what is actually cheap in Iowa. It is not the shopping — that runs about 11.23% from the national average, which is not far. It is housing, at about 34% from average. The biggest bill most households pay is the one this state discounts.
- Here is the same idea pointed at a wage. Take a salary of seventy-five thousand dollars. In Iowa, at local prices, it buys what $84,491 would buy at national-average prices. Nothing has been taxed yet in that figure — it is only what the prices around you do to the money before the government touches it.
- Iowa carries an all-items price parity about 11.23% below the national level, ranking 45 nationally for overall price level. A basket costing one hundred dollars at national average prices costs $89 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.
- Decomposition puts Iowa's housing parity about 34% below national against an overall about 11.23%, a divergence of about 22.77% and a shelter rank of 43. Non-tradeable goods absorb local conditions that tradeable ones cannot, which is why shelter drives nearly all interstate variation in measured price level. Any relocation model built on the all-items figure alone will therefore understate the gain here.
- Deflating a seventy-five thousand dollar nominal salary by Iowa's all-items parity gives $84,491 in national-average purchasing power. ⚠️ This is a price adjustment only and contains no tax of any kind; state income tax, sales tax and local levies apply on top and are modeled elsewhere on this site. The comparison is also silent on wages themselves — high-parity states frequently pay more in nominal terms, and whether that offsets the price level is an empirical question this index cannot answer.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $59,354 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 88.767 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 65.995 |
| Cheapest place to live | 7th 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 Iowa | $59,354 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,482 |
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
- Housing65.995
- Goods95.07
- Services93.114
| Housing | 65.995 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 95.07 |
| Services | 93.114 |
| All items | 88.767 |
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 | 9th of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Iowa on take-home | 15th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 7th |
| Places moved | 8 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Iowa against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Iowa | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $59,354 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $66,865 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 20.86% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 6% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 1.39% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 88.8 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 66 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 30¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.36 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Iowa, 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 | $71,818 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$4,810 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 89 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Iowa 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 | -34% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -4.93% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -6.89% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -11.23% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Iowa prices, buys what $84,491 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 Iowa, 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 Iowa 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 Iowa.
- 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 Iowa 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 Iowa to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
Room that a bigger salary elsewhere might not buy. A hundred dollars here does the work of $89 at national prices.
Is this number a percentage?
No — it is an index, with the national average fixed at one hundred. A state at one hundred and eight is eight index points above the average, not eight percent more expensive than any particular thing. Reading it as a percentage is the mistake that makes these figures sound more precise than they are.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Housing, and by a long way. Goods cost broadly the same everywhere — a television is a television — but rent and house prices swing far wider than anything else, so the housing component is what pushes Iowa away from the national average rather than the shopping.
Is this one of the extremes?
It sits at 45 of 51, close to an extreme. The tails of this distribution are stretched, so differences involving them overstate what an ordinary relocation looks like.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Adjust the pay before you compare it, not after. A reference salary is worth $84,491 here once prices are taken into account — and the tax side moves separately, so a full comparison needs both adjustments rather than either one alone.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Iowa's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $89 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 Iowa'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.
Where does this state sit in the national ordering?
This state ranks 45 of 51, within the tails of the distribution. Parity dispersion is greater at the extremes than around the median, so comparisons anchored on a tail state overstate typical interstate differences.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $84,491 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.