Palm Bay vs Wilmington
Metro-area medians — Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL Metro Area vs Wilmington, NC Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Wilmington comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Wilmington costs about 4% less to live in, and household incomes are similar. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Wilmington.
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, Palm Bay leaves you about $466/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 Wilmington for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
Palm Bay vs Wilmington — frequently asked
- Is Palm Bay cheaper than Wilmington?
- Wilmington is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 4% below Palm Bay's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Palm Bay or Wilmington?
- Household incomes are similar — $78,196 in the Palm Bay metro versus $78,890 in Wilmington (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Palm Bay or Wilmington?
- A paycheck stretches further in Wilmington. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $81,817 there versus $78,192 in Palm Bay.
- Which has cheaper rent, Palm Bay or Wilmington?
- Wilmington has cheaper rent — a median of $1,578/mo versus $1,681/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).