Purchasing Power: The Real Value of $100 by Metropolitan Area, 2023
by Erica York, Tax Foundation, December 15, 2025
If you’ve ordered a rideshare or gotten a haircut in a major US city, you’ve likely noticed that the price of these services is higher than in other parts of the country. The difference is due to price level variation throughout the United States.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released data detailing the disparities in spending power across metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of each state for calendar year 2023. Using the data, we can compare how much $100 buys across the country.
The differences can be large, and they have significant implications for the relative impact of economic and tax policies across the United States.
One hundred dollars tends to buy the least in large cities in the Northeast, California, and the Pacific Northwest. On the other hand, $100 goes the furthest in rural areas in the Southeast and Midwest. Prices can vary within states too—$100 in Colorado tends to buy $103.90 worth of goods and services in nonmetropolitan areas of the state, but only $97.93 worth in metropolitan areas.
#16 -- Urban Honolulu, HI (MSA) -- $90.71
#30 -- Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI (MSA) -- $94.09
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