Cedar Rapids → Watertown-Fort Drum
Relocation analysis based on 7 federal data sources
Should you move?
Moving from Cedar Rapids to Watertown-Fort Drum is unfavorable: BEA regional price parity goes from 89.0 to 87.7 (US = 100), and HUD 2-bedroom rent rises by $449/mo.
- -$467
- BLS median salary lower in Watertown-Fort Drum
- 238 to 380
- violent crimes per 100K (FBI UCR, state-level)
- 14.8:1 to 11.8:1
- NCES student-teacher ratio
- $5,563
- DOL infant care higher / yr in Watertown-Fort Drum
BEA Regional Price Parity, HUD Fair Market Rent, BLS OEWS, FBI UCR, NCES, and DOL. The table below lets you override the composite with your own priorities.
Pros of Moving
- + Better student-teacher ratios
Cons of Moving
- - $449/mo more expensive rent (2BR)
- - Higher violent crime rate
- - More expensive childcare
- - More environmental violations
Purchasing power stays near-even: BEA RPP moves only from 89.0 to 87.7 (ratio 0.99), inside a ±5% band. HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent rises $449/mo ($5,388/yr) from $956 in Cedar Rapids to $1,405 in Watertown-Fort Drum.
Cedar Rapids still leads on 5 of 7 federal dimensions, the origin keeps the edge. Watertown-Fort Drum sits #37 of 387 metros on PlainRelocate livability (top third of the corpus). Cedar Rapids is #31/387 on the same ranking. Composite verdict: Unfavorable. Override it with the dimension table below.
BLS OEWS median salary moves $467 lower ($63,268 → $62,801). Labor-market size: 133,750 tracked jobs at origin vs 34,160 at destination.
State retirement friendliness favors staying put: Iowa scores 70 (B, #8/51) vs New York at 46 (F, #46/51). Full state tax and healthcare sub-scores sit in the retirement desk below.
State retirement friendliness
Primary-state scores from PlainRelocate's retirement registry (tax + healthcare + climate composite). Metro pairs use each metro's primary state abbreviation.
- Income tax
- 85
- Property tax
- 58
- Estate tax
- 50
- Healthcare
- 42
- Income tax
- 80
- Property tax
- 48
- Estate tax
- 50
- Healthcare
- 96
Full retirement ranking · Source composite documented on methodology (Tax Foundation + AARP tax guides + federal healthcare/climate inputs).
Salary Adjustment Calculator
Enter your current salary in Cedar Rapids to see what you'd need to earn in Watertown-Fort Drum to maintain the same purchasing power.
Watertown-Fort Drum metro profile · Livability rankings · Methodology
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities, HUD Fair Market Rents, BLS OES, FBI UCR, NCES, DOL, EPA; retirement desk: Tax Foundation + AARP tax guides June 2026