Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway → Iowa City

Moving from Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway to Iowa City shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 89.4 to 91.5 (100 = US average), so a Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway salary needs to be multiplied by 1.02 to hold the same purchasing power in Iowa City. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $1,147/month in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway to $1,141/month in Iowa City - a lower monthly bill of $6, or $72/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 $57,042 in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway versus $66,752 in Iowa City - a raw gap of $9,710 higher. The Iowa City labor market has 83,600 tracked jobs against 350,410 in Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, 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 Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway and Iowa City are 580 and 238 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 13.6:1 at origin versus 14.8:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Favorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.