Overall
Diff -4.8 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lake Havasu City-Kingman is 4.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ is 4.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 94.1 vs 98.9). A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton buys about the same as $95,186 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman; the largest component gap is services.
RPP parity plate
Pair NJ:AZ 98.9→94.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · 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.
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.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ is 4.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.8-point overall gap.
Services leads the difference, with Lake Havasu City-Kingman 20.5 points lower than Atlantic City-Hammonton. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
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 Atlantic City-Hammonton to $95,186 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Atlantic City-Hammonton and Lake Havasu City-Kingman share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 17.0 to 4.8 RPP points. Atlantic City-Hammonton remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 31.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (50.1 to 18.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Lake Havasu City-Kingman RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 110.7 | 93.8 | 17.0 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 104.6 | 95.5 | 9.0 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 102.6 | 93.0 | 9.7 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 101.2 | 87.7 | 13.5 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2024 | 98.9 | 94.1 | 4.8 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.
Diff -4.8 RPP
Diff -3.6 RPP
Diff -20.5 RPP
Diff -18.9 RPP
| Category | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Lake Havasu City-Kingman | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.9 | 94.1 | -4.8 |
| Goods | 99.8 | 96.2 | -3.6 |
| Services | 109.2 | 88.7 | -20.5 |
| Rents | 98.7 | 79.8 | -18.9 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
What a salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton would need to be in Lake Havasu City-Kingman for the same purchasing power:
| In Atlantic City-Hammonton | In Lake Havasu City-Kingman | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,593 | $-2,407 |
| $75,000 | $71,389 | $-3,611 |
| $100,000 | $95,186 | $-4,814 |
| $150,000 | $142,779 | $-7,221 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.9 → 94.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman is 4.8% less expensive than Atlantic City-Hammonton. The overall cost index is 94.1 vs 98.9 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton has the same purchasing power as $95,186 in Lake Havasu City-Kingman. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Atlantic City-Hammonton are indexed at 98.7 while Lake Havasu City-Kingman is at 79.8 (national average = 100). Atlantic City-Hammonton 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.