Overall
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 103.7
Diff +5.6 RPP
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos vs Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 5.7% more expensive than Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos.
5.7% more expensive
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA is 5.7% more expensive than Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.7 vs 98.1). A $100,000 salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos buys about the same as $105,715 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 98.1 (Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos) vs 103.7 (Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater)
- $100k in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos ≈ $105,715 purchasing power in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- Goods drives the gap (+11.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:WA 98.1→103.7
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE TX × 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
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 105.0
Diff +11.3 RPP
Services
Diff +9.7 RPP
Rents
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 116.7
Diff -3.7 RPP
| Category | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.1 | 103.7 | +5.6 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 105.0 | +11.3 |
| Services | 82.0 | 91.7 | +9.7 |
| Rents | 120.4 | 116.7 | -3.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 98.1
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 103.7
Goods
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 93.8
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 105.0
Services
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 82.0
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 91.7
Rents
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 120.4
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 116.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 11.3 points higher. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA is 5.7% more expensive than Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is above 100 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $105,715 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, then replace the national basket with your own.
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
98.1
Cost Index
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
103.7
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos would need to be in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater for the same purchasing power:
| In Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | In Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,857 | +$2,857 |
| $75,000 | $79,286 | +$4,286 |
| $100,000 | $105,715 | +$5,715 |
| $150,000 | $158,572 | +$8,572 |
$ in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos = in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.1 → 103.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 5.8 to 5.6 RPP points. Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 28.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (18.8 to 9.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos RPP | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.6 | 105.4 | 5.8 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 101.3 | 0.4 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2016 | 102.6 | 106.0 | 3.5 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2020 | 101.1 | 101.9 | 0.8 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2024 | 98.1 | 103.7 | 5.6 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 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 Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater more expensive than Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos?
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 5.7% more expensive than Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos. The overall cost index is 103.7 vs 98.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater equals $100K in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos?
A $100,000 salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos has the same purchasing power as $105,715 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?
Rents in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos are indexed at 120.4 while Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is at 116.7 (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.