Overall
Diff -0.8 RPP
Atlantic City-Hammonton vs Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 0.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton.
0.8% less expensive
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is 0.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.1 vs 98.9). A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton buys about the same as $99,200 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton) vs 98.1 (Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos)
- $100k in Atlantic City-Hammonton ≈ $99,200 purchasing power in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
- Services drives the gap (-27.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NJ:TX 98.9→98.1
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NJ × TX
- 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
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
98.1
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.8 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 27.2 points lower. But rents 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 $99,200 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
| Category | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.9 | 98.1 | -0.8 |
| Goods | 99.8 | 93.8 | -6.0 |
| Services | 109.2 | 82.0 | -27.2 |
| Rents | 98.7 | 120.4 | +21.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 98.1
Goods
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 93.8
Services
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 82.0
Rents
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 120.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Atlantic City-Hammonton and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 11.1 to 0.8 RPP points. Atlantic City-Hammonton remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 44.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (23.0 to 21.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 110.7 | 99.6 | 11.1 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 104.6 | 100.9 | 3.6 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 102.6 | 102.6 | 0.1 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 101.2 | 101.1 | 0.1 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2024 | 98.9 | 98.1 | 0.8 points Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos for the same purchasing power:
| In Atlantic City-Hammonton | In Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,600 | $-400 |
| $75,000 | $74,400 | $-600 |
| $100,000 | $99,200 | $-800 |
| $150,000 | $148,800 | $-1,200 |
$ in Atlantic City-Hammonton = in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.9 → 98.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 0.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton. The overall cost index is 98.1 vs 98.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos equals $100K in Atlantic City-Hammonton?
A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton has the same purchasing power as $99,200 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Atlantic City-Hammonton and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos?
Rents in Atlantic City-Hammonton are indexed at 98.7 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is at 120.4 (national average = 100). Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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.