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Santa Cruz vs Sacramento: rent and cost of living
Pick two places to compare official price levels, Fair Market Rents, median rents and incomes, and each place’s rent cap. Add your income to see what it’s equivalent to in the other place, adjusted for price levels.
RPP-adjusted equivalent income
Your rent vs HUD Fair Market Rent
| Measure | Santa Cruz | Sacramento |
|---|---|---|
| Rent cap now | 8.6% | 8.6% |
| Prices, all items BEA RPP, US = 100 | 109.9 | 106.7 |
| Housing prices BEA RPP | 164.3 | 130.2 |
| Fair Market Rent, 2 bedrooms HUD FY2027 | $4,254 | $2,201 |
| Median gross rent ACS 2020–2024 | $2,452/mo | $1,779/mo |
| Median household income ACS | $115,475 | $87,321 |
| Median rent as % of income ACS, renters | 32.5% | 32.8% |
| Areas used | Prices: Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA metro area FMR: Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA MSA ACS: Santa Cruz city, California | Prices: Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA metro area FMR: Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade, CA HUD Metro FMR Area ACS: Sacramento city, California |
Can I afford rent there? → Santa Cruz page → Sacramento page →
The equivalent income multiplies your income by the ratio of the two areas’ all-items price levels (BEA Regional Price Parities). It is a price-level adjustment, not a prediction or a guarantee: it ignores taxes, wages, the rent you’d actually find and your own spending.
The short version
Santa Cruz and Sacramento in official figures
BEA puts the all-items price level for the Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA metro area at 109.9 and for the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA metro area at 106.7 (US = 100). By that measure, an income of $100,000 in Santa Cruz has about the same purchasing power as $97,064 in Sacramento, before taxes and with every other difference ignored.
HUD’s FY2027 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $4,254 in Santa Cruz and $2,201 in Sacramento. Rent caps: Santa Cruz — 8.6%; Sacramento — 8.6%. See the Santa Cruz and Sacramento pages for who is covered.
How it works
Where the numbers come from
Price levels are BEA Regional Price Parities, an index of how expensive an area is compared with the US average (all items = 100). We use the metro area a city or county is in (OMB’s July 2023 metro definitions), or the state on statewide pages. The equivalent income is your income × (price level there ÷ price level here).
Fair Market Rents are HUD’s published rents for each metro area or county, by unit size. Median rent, median income and rent as a share of income are Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates for the city itself (or the county or state on those pages). Every figure names the area it describes.
- BEA Regional Price Parities by metropolitan area (MARPP) ↗ · 2024 (released February 19, 2026) · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- BEA Regional Price Parities by state (SARPP) ↗ · 2024 (released February 19, 2026) · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- OMB metropolitan area delineations (Census list 1, July 2023) ↗ · July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01) · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- HUD Fair Market Rents, FY2027 (county-level data file) ↗ · FY2027 · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (tables B25064, B19013, B25071) ↗ · 2020–2024 · about the data ↗ · retrieved Oct 18, 2026
Privacy
Everything is calculated in your browser. Only the two place names go in the page address (so you can share a comparison); your income and rent never do, and our analytics record only which places you compared and yes/no for whether you entered an income or a rent.