Boston-Cambridge-Newton → St. Louis

Moving from Boston-Cambridge-Newton to St. Louis shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 108.3 to 95.1 (100 = US average), so a Boston-Cambridge-Newton salary needs to be multiplied by 0.88 to hold the same purchasing power in St. Louis. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $2,941/month in Boston-Cambridge-Newton to $916/month in St. Louis - a lower monthly bill of $2,025, or $24,300/year. That rent delta alone is often the single biggest line item when relocating.

Wages tell the other half. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a median salary of $83,802 in Boston-Cambridge-Newton versus $68,074 in St. Louis - a raw gap of $15,728 lower. The St. Louis labor market has 1,311,920 tracked jobs against 2,639,240 in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, shaping how easy it is to find a comparable role. Combine that with the cost-of-living shift above and you get the real purchasing-power delta, sometimes a "higher salary" is actually a pay cut once rent and RPP are applied.

Safety, schools, and childcare round out the move. FBI UCR violent crime rates near Boston-Cambridge-Newton and St. Louis are 309 and 463 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 12.3:1 at origin versus 12.8:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Less Favorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.