Overall
- Bellingham
- 103.3
Diff +3.4 RPP
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton vs Bellingham
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Bellingham is 3.4% more expensive than Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton.
3.4% more expensive
Bellingham, WA is 3.4% more expensive than Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.3 vs 100.0). A $100,000 salary in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton buys about the same as $103,367 in Bellingham; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.0 (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton) vs 103.3 (Bellingham)
- $100k in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton ≈ $103,367 purchasing power in Bellingham
- Services drives the gap (-7.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair PA:WA 100.0→103.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE PA × WA
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Bellingham
- 105.0
Diff +4.5 RPP
Services
- Bellingham
- 99.9
Diff -7.7 RPP
Rents
- Bellingham
- 112.9
Diff +7.4 RPP
| Category | Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton | Bellingham | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.0 | 103.3 | +3.4 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 105.0 | +4.5 |
| Services | 107.6 | 99.9 | -7.7 |
| Rents | 105.5 | 112.9 | +7.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 100.0
Bellingham 103.3
Goods
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 100.6
Bellingham 105.0
Services
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 107.6
Bellingham 99.9
Rents
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 105.5
Bellingham 112.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Bellingham is 7.7 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Bellingham, WA is 3.4% more expensive than Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.4-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Bellingham is above 100 while Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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 Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton to $103,367 in Bellingham, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
100.0
Cost Index
Bellingham
103.3
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton would need to be in Bellingham for the same purchasing power:
| In Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton | In Bellingham | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,684 | +$1,684 |
| $75,000 | $77,525 | +$2,525 |
| $100,000 | $103,367 | +$3,367 |
| $150,000 | $155,051 | +$5,051 |
$ in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton = in Bellingham
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.0 → 103.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton and Bellingham share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 4.9 to 3.4 RPP points. Bellingham remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 30.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (37.8 to 7.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton RPP | Bellingham RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 101.1 | 96.2 | 4.9 points Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton higher |
| 2012 | 99.9 | 102.0 | 2.1 points Bellingham higher |
| 2016 | 101.1 | 98.7 | 2.4 points Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton higher |
| 2020 | 99.7 | 103.5 | 3.8 points Bellingham higher |
| 2024 | 100.0 | 103.3 | 3.4 points Bellingham higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bellingham more expensive than Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton?
Bellingham is 3.4% more expensive than Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton. The overall cost index is 103.3 vs 100.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Bellingham equals $100K in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton?
A $100,000 salary in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton has the same purchasing power as $103,367 in Bellingham. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton and Bellingham?
Rents in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton are indexed at 105.5 while Bellingham is at 112.9 (national average = 100). Bellingham has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
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.