Overall
Diff +0.7 RPP
Atlantic City-Hammonton vs Albany-Schenectady-Troy
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Albany-Schenectady-Troy is 0.7% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton.
0.7% more expensive
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY is 0.7% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 99.6 vs 98.9). A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton buys about the same as $100,717 in Albany-Schenectady-Troy; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton) vs 99.6 (Albany-Schenectady-Troy)
- $100k in Atlantic City-Hammonton ≈ $100,717 purchasing power in Albany-Schenectady-Troy
- Services drives the gap (+24.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NJ:NY 98.9→99.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NJ × NY
- 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.
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
Albany-Schenectady-Troy
99.6
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ and Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.7 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Albany-Schenectady-Troy is 24.8 points higher. But goods 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 Atlantic City-Hammonton to $100,717 in Albany-Schenectady-Troy, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -0.1 RPP
Services
- Atlantic City-Hammonton
- 109.2
- Albany-Schenectady-Troy
- 134.0
Diff +24.8 RPP
Rents
- Albany-Schenectady-Troy
- 102.6
Diff +3.9 RPP
| Category | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Albany-Schenectady-Troy | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.9 | 99.6 | +0.7 |
| Goods | 99.8 | 99.7 | -0.1 |
| Services | 109.2 | 134.0 | +24.8 |
| Rents | 98.7 | 102.6 | +3.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Albany-Schenectady-Troy 99.6
Goods
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Albany-Schenectady-Troy 99.7
Services
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Albany-Schenectady-Troy 134.0
Rents
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Albany-Schenectady-Troy 102.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Atlantic City-Hammonton and Albany-Schenectady-Troy share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.3 to 0.7 RPP points. Albany-Schenectady-Troy remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 32.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (28.3 to 3.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Albany-Schenectady-Troy RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 110.7 | 102.4 | 8.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 104.6 | 99.5 | 5.1 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 102.6 | 101.1 | 1.5 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 101.2 | 99.0 | 2.2 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2024 | 98.9 | 99.6 | 0.7 points Albany-Schenectady-Troy 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton would need to be in Albany-Schenectady-Troy for the same purchasing power:
| In Atlantic City-Hammonton | In Albany-Schenectady-Troy | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,359 | +$359 |
| $75,000 | $75,538 | +$538 |
| $100,000 | $100,717 | +$717 |
| $150,000 | $151,076 | +$1,076 |
$ in Atlantic City-Hammonton = in Albany-Schenectady-Troy
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.9 → 99.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Albany-Schenectady-Troy more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Albany-Schenectady-Troy is 0.7% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton. The overall cost index is 99.6 vs 98.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Albany-Schenectady-Troy equals $100K in Atlantic City-Hammonton?
A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton has the same purchasing power as $100,717 in Albany-Schenectady-Troy. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Atlantic City-Hammonton and Albany-Schenectady-Troy?
Rents in Atlantic City-Hammonton are indexed at 98.7 while Albany-Schenectady-Troy is at 102.6 (national average = 100). Albany-Schenectady-Troy 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.