PlainCost
Home / Compare /

Albany vs Tuscaloosa

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Tuscaloosa is 0.1% more expensive than Albany.

0.1% more expensive

Tuscaloosa, AL is 0.1% more expensive than Albany, GA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 87.7 vs 87.7). A $100,000 salary in Albany buys about the same as $100,060 in Tuscaloosa; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 87.7 (Albany) vs 87.7 (Tuscaloosa)
  • $100k in Albany ≈ $100,060 purchasing power in Tuscaloosa
  • Services drives the gap (-3.9 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair GA:AL 87.7→87.7

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE GA × AL
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
  • PP-PAR PP near-par

Instrument codes from this pair's BEA Regional Price Parities (overall · goods · services · rents · national benchmark 100 · purchasing-power conversion), not a ranking or recommendation.

Albany
87.7
Cost Index
Tuscaloosa
87.7
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Albany, GA and Tuscaloosa, AL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Tuscaloosa is 3.9 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.

Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.

For a service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Albany to $100,060 in Tuscaloosa, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Albany
87.7
Tuscaloosa
87.7
Goods
Albany
96.3
Tuscaloosa
96.4
Services
Albany
88.3
Tuscaloosa
84.4
Rents
Albany
54.6
Tuscaloosa
58.2

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Albany would need to be in Tuscaloosa for the same purchasing power:

In Albany In Tuscaloosa Difference
$50,000 $50,030 +$30
$75,000 $75,045 +$45
$100,000 $100,060 +$60
$150,000 $150,091 +$91
$ in Albany = – in Tuscaloosa

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (87.7 → 87.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Tuscaloosa → Albany Albany Details Tuscaloosa Details

Also Compare

vs Watertown-Fort Drum vs Hattiesburg vs St. Cloud vs Farmington vs Brunswick-St. Simons vs Terre Haute

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Tuscaloosa more expensive than Albany?

Tuscaloosa is 0.1% more expensive than Albany. The overall cost index is 87.7 vs 87.7 (national average = 100).

What salary in Tuscaloosa equals $100K in Albany?

A $100,000 salary in Albany has the same purchasing power as $100,060 in Tuscaloosa. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Albany and Tuscaloosa?

Rents in Albany are indexed at 54.6 while Tuscaloosa is at 58.2 (national average = 100). Tuscaloosa has higher rents.

Data sources

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.