St. Louis → Decatur

Moving from St. Louis to Decatur shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 95.1 to 87.2 (100 = US average), so a St. Louis salary needs to be multiplied by 0.92 to hold the same purchasing power in Decatur. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $916/month in St. Louis to $961/month in Decatur - a higher monthly bill of $45, or $540/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 $68,074 in St. Louis versus $61,714 in Decatur - a raw gap of $6,360 lower. The Decatur labor market has 54,590 tracked jobs against 1,311,920 in St. Louis, 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. Louis and Decatur are 463 and 376 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 12.8:1 at origin versus 17.7:1 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.