Bend vs St. George
Metro-area medians — Bend, OR Metro Area vs St. George, UT Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Bend comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
St. George is about 6% cheaper to live in, while Bend households earn about 10% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Bend.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, St. George leaves you about $6,154/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Bend for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose St. George for
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
Bend vs St. George — frequently asked
- Is Bend cheaper than St. George?
- St. George is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 6% below Bend's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Bend or St. George?
- Bend has the higher median household income — $95,979 versus $86,983 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 10% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Bend or St. George?
- A paycheck stretches further in Bend. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $92,638 there versus $89,377 in St. George.
- Which has cheaper rent, Bend or St. George?
- St. George has cheaper rent — a median of $1,653/mo versus $1,834/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).