Overall
Diff +4.2 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.3% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.3% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.1 vs 98.9). A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton buys about the same as $104,282 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; the largest component gap is rents.
RPP parity plate
Pair NJ:TX 98.9→103.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · 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.
Diff +4.2 RPP
Diff +3.0 RPP
Diff -18.5 RPP
Diff +19.2 RPP
| Category | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.9 | 103.1 | +4.2 |
| Goods | 99.8 | 102.8 | +3.0 |
| Services | 109.2 | 90.7 | -18.5 |
| Rents | 98.7 | 117.9 | +19.2 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
Rents creates the largest separation: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 19.2 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.3% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Atlantic City-Hammonton corresponds to $104,282 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
What a salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton would need to be in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington for the same purchasing power:
| In Atlantic City-Hammonton | In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,141 | +$2,141 |
| $75,000 | $78,211 | +$3,211 |
| $100,000 | $104,282 | +$4,282 |
| $150,000 | $156,423 | +$6,423 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.9 → 103.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Atlantic City-Hammonton and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 9.4 to 4.2 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 48.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (29.6 to 19.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 110.7 | 101.4 | 9.4 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 104.6 | 100.8 | 3.8 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 102.6 | 98.0 | 4.6 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 101.2 | 104.5 | 3.4 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 98.9 | 103.1 | 4.2 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.3% more expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton. The overall cost index is 103.1 vs 98.9 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton has the same purchasing power as $104,282 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Atlantic City-Hammonton are indexed at 98.7 while Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is at 117.9 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has higher rents.
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.