All-items parity
92.7
US = 100.0
Wyoming (WY) | All-items parity 92.7
Wyoming Cost of Living 2026
Wyoming reads 92.7 on the BEA all-items price parity for 2024, comfortably below the national level, and runs the lightest total tax structure in America outside Alaska: no income tax on anything, a 4% state sales tax, and property tax at 0.56% effective, newly softened by legislated exemptions for primary residences. Minerals pay instead: coal, gas, trona and oil severance taxes carry the budget. The median home of $339,500 hides the nation's widest single-county distortion, Teton County's Jackson Hole prices like Manhattan while the rest of the state sells in the $200,000s and $300,000s.
No income tax, 4% sales taxProperty tax 0.56% + new reliefSeverance taxes fund the state
Median Home
$339,500
2BR rent $972/mo
Median Income
$75,532
Household, Census ACS
Category breakdown
The four BEA price parities vs the nation
| Category | WY index | National avg | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| All items | 92.7 | 100.0 | -7.3% |
| Services: housing rents | 71.1 | 100.6 | -29.3% |
| Goods | 95.4 | 99.6 | -4.2% |
| Services: utilities | 78.4 | 98.4 | -20.3% |
| Services: other | 100.4 | 100.1 | 0.3% |
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes these four component parities and no others. There is no federal grocery, healthcare or transportation price parity, so this table shows none. Food at home sits inside Goods; medical and transport services sit inside Services: other.
Sources: BEA Regional Price Parities by State (table SARPP), 2024 reference year, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Census ACS 2024 1-year (median income, home value), Wyoming Department of Revenue (sales and property tax, homestead exemption), Tax Foundation (effective property tax), EIA (electricity rates), KFF (uninsured rate).
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Pros / offsets
What works in Wyoming.
The lightest sustained tax load in the Lower 48. No tax on wages, retirement income or capital gains, a 4% state sales tax (counties add modestly), and 0.56% property tax, now with a legislated exemption cutting a quarter off primary-residence bills, a direct answer to assessment spikes; groceries are exempt from sales tax entirely.
Rents at the bottom of the national table. The median two-bedroom rent is $972, among the five lowest in our data, and ordinary homes across Casper, Cheyenne and the Bighorn Basin trade in the $200,000s-$300,000s.
Energy keeps the bills mild. Electricity at 11.12 cents per kWh (average bill $102) from an energy-exporting grid, and a utilities parity of 78.4 well below the national level despite real winters.
Trust and residency advantages travel. No state estate tax, strong asset-protection and trust statutes, and no income-tax filings make Wyoming residency popular with retirees, remote earners and business owners structuring around higher-tax former homes.
Cons / drivers
Where Wyoming costs more.
The job market is as thin as the population. The least-populated state has a mineral-cycle economy: energy busts empty towns like Gillette and Rock Springs between booms, and professional careers outside energy, government and healthcare usually route through Denver or Salt Lake.
Jackson is a separate, unaffordable universe. Teton County's wealth-migration economy (no income tax plus Grand Teton scenery) produced the nation's most extreme housing market; workers commute over a mountain pass from Idaho, and the county's prices leak into Star Valley and beyond.
Wind, winter and distance cost real money. I-80 closures, ground blizzards, $72 average seasonal gas bills, 70-mile grocery runs in the Basin, and auto insurance averaging $478 on wildlife-strike and distance risk: the emptiness that keeps prices low also prices in logistics.
Services run lean by design. The 9.8% uninsured rate is upper-tier, several rural hospitals have trimmed obstetrics and specialties, and the state's low-tax bargain is matched by modest public-service depth outside the school system minerals fund.
Tax + benefit signals
Wyoming tax and access overview
State income tax
0%
No state income tax
Property tax effective
0.56%
Of assessed value, annual
Sales tax (state)
4.00%
Local can add 1-4% more
Uninsured rate
9.8%
Medicaid: not expanded
Your take-home pay in Wyoming
No state income tax: see exactly what federal tax and FICA leave you per paycheck.
The mortgage on a $339,500 home
Monthly payment at today’s rates with Wyoming property tax (0.56%) and average home insurance.
Metro variation
State averages mask city variation.
Wyoming averages 92.7 on the BEA all-items parity, with small markets scattered across big distances:
Cheyenne: The capital and the state's steadiest market: government, F.E. Warren AFB and a growing data-center corridor, with Front Range access down I-25 and housing in the low $300,000s.
Casper: The energy-services hub rides the oil cycle; housing in the $200,000s-$300,000s with the state's most urban amenities after Cheyenne.
Laramie: The university town: UW keeps rents firm and the population young in a state that otherwise skews neither.
Jackson and Teton County: Manhattan-tier pricing on conservation-constrained land (97% of the county is public or protected); the workforce lives in Victor and Driggs, Idaho, and commutes Teton Pass.
Gillette, Rock Springs and the Basin towns: Boom-cycle housing at the state's lowest prices, with services sized to the current commodity cycle rather than the last one.
Price Wyoming as Cheyenne-or-Casper practicality, Laramie's college market, or Jackson's wealth economy; the averages blend three things that never meet.
Frequently Asked
Wyoming cost of living, answered
How does Wyoming survive with almost no taxes on residents?
Severance taxes on minerals, coal, natural gas, oil and trona (the state mines most of the world's supply), plus federal mineral royalties and the investment earnings of the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund, which has banked severance revenue since 1975. Residents' sales and property taxes cover a minority of the budget. The structural risk is the same as the advantage: when coal and gas decline, the legislature debates new revenue, which is why economic diversification (data centers, tourism) is the perennial state project.
What property-tax relief did Wyoming pass?
After reassessments tracked the post-2020 price run-up, the legislature enacted a package of exemptions, headlined by a 25% exemption on the first $1 million of a primary residence's value, plus expanded relief for long-term owners and seniors. Combined with the already-low base, the effective rate on an owner-occupied home now runs at or below the 0.56% statewide figure. Second homes and commercial property take no benefit, a deliberate tilt toward resident owners in a second-home-heavy state.
Why is Jackson Hole so expensive?
Scarcity engineered by geography and law: 97% of Teton County is national park, forest or otherwise protected, so a world-class scenery-and-ski market clears on a few thousand buildable parcels, and Wyoming's zero income tax makes it the favored legal residence of serious wealth (Teton County regularly posts America's highest per-capita income). Workers commute from Victor and Driggs over Teton Pass. For anyone not arriving with wealth, Jackson is a wage posting, not a housing market.
Is Wyoming good for retirees?
On taxes, nearly perfect: no tax on Social Security, pensions, withdrawals or gains (there is no income tax to exempt them from), no estate tax, groceries exempt from sales tax, and property relief for seniors on top of the new homestead exemption. The practical caveats are healthcare depth, 9.8% uninsured, thin specialist coverage, with Cheyenne (near Front Range systems) and Casper the sensible anchors, and winters that ask more of a household than Arizona ever will.
What are the hidden costs of Wyoming's emptiness?
Distance is the recurring bill: many households drive 20,000+ miles a year for work, groceries and appointments, I-80 and I-25 close in ground blizzards, and wildlife-strike risk keeps auto insurance around $478 despite empty roads. Winter adds $72 average seasonal gas bills and equipment (tires, plows, generators in the Basin). Trades and contractors book scarce and price accordingly. None of this appears in the 92.7 parity; all of it belongs in a moving budget.
Cheyenne or Casper for an actual move?
Cheyenne for stability and connection: state government and the Air Force base smooth the cycle, Denver's airport and job market sit ninety minutes south, and the data-center build-out is adding non-mineral employment. Casper for energy careers and centrality: it is the service hub for the state's oilfields with more price softness in the troughs. Both sell family homes near $300,000 under the same absent income tax; Laramie suits university-tied households. Jackson is not in this comparison.