St. Cloud → Altoona

Moving from St. Cloud to Altoona shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 87.6 to 89.5 (100 = US average), so a St. Cloud salary needs to be multiplied by 1.02 to hold the same purchasing power in Altoona. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $1,206/month in St. Cloud to $1,138/month in Altoona - a lower monthly bill of $68, or $816/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 $72,671 in St. Cloud versus $57,335 in Altoona - a raw gap of $15,336 lower. The Altoona labor market has 52,800 tracked jobs against 96,960 in St. Cloud, 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 St. Cloud and Altoona are 259 and 250 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 15.8:1 at origin versus 13.6:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Neutral — Depends on Priorities - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.