Regional Price Parities

From US Bureau of Economic Analysis, July 7, 2016 (excerpt)

Regional Price Parities (RPPs) measure the differences in the price levels of goods and services across states and metropolitan areas for a given year. RPPs are expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level for each year.

In 2014, the District of Columbia's RPP (118.1) was higher than that of any state (table 3). The states with the highest RPPs were Hawaii (116.8), New York (115.7), New Jersey (114.5), and California (112.4). Mississippi (86.7), Arkansas (87.5), Alabama (87.8), South Dakota (88.0), and Kentucky (88.7) had the lowest RPPs among the states. States with high (low) RPPs typically have high (low) price levels for rents. States with RPPs closest to the national average price level were Vermont (101.2), Illinois (100.7), Florida (99.1), Oregon (99.0), and Rhode Island (98.7).

In 2014, the metropolitan area with the highest RPP was Urban Honolulu, HI (123.5). Metropolitan areas with RPPs above 120.0 also included San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (122.9), New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (122.3), Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA (121.8), San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA (121.3), and Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT (120.4). The metropolitan area with the lowest RPP was Beckley, WV (79.7), followed by Rome, GA (80.7), Danville, IL (81.1), Morristown, TN (81.9), and Jonesboro, AR (82.0).

read … Real Personal Income for States and Metropolitan Areas, 2014