Overall
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 100.9
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff -2.5 RPP
Bakersfield-Delano vs Barnstable Town
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Barnstable Town is 2.5% less expensive than Bakersfield-Delano.
2.5% less expensive
Barnstable Town, MA is 2.5% less expensive than Bakersfield-Delano, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Bakersfield-Delano buys about the same as $97,487 in Barnstable Town; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Bakersfield-Delano) vs 98.4 (Barnstable Town)
- $100k in Bakersfield-Delano ≈ $97,487 purchasing power in Barnstable Town
- Goods drives the gap (-8.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:MA 100.9→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × MA
- 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
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 105.2
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
Diff -8.2 RPP
Services
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 158.3
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff +0.2 RPP
Rents
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 90.3
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff -0.3 RPP
| Category | Bakersfield-Delano | Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.4 | -2.5 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 97.0 | -8.2 |
| Services | 158.3 | 158.4 | +0.2 |
| Rents | 90.3 | 90.0 | -0.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Bakersfield-Delano 100.9
Barnstable Town 98.4
Goods
Bakersfield-Delano 105.2
Barnstable Town 97.0
Services
Bakersfield-Delano 158.3
Barnstable Town 158.4
Rents
Bakersfield-Delano 90.3
Barnstable Town 90.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Barnstable Town is 8.2 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Barnstable Town, MA is 2.5% less expensive than Bakersfield-Delano, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Bakersfield-Delano is above 100 while Barnstable Town 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 $97,487 in Barnstable Town as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Bakersfield-Delano, then replace the national basket with your own.
Bakersfield-Delano
100.9
Cost Index
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Bakersfield-Delano would need to be in Barnstable Town for the same purchasing power:
| In Bakersfield-Delano | In Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,744 | $-1,256 |
| $75,000 | $73,115 | $-1,885 |
| $100,000 | $97,487 | $-2,513 |
| $150,000 | $146,231 | $-3,769 |
$ in Bakersfield-Delano = in Barnstable Town
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Bakersfield-Delano and Barnstable Town share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.9 to 2.5 RPP points. Bakersfield-Delano remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 38.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (38.8 to 0.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Bakersfield-Delano RPP | Barnstable Town RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 96.9 | 102.8 | 5.9 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 101.1 | 100.9 | 0.1 points Bakersfield-Delano higher |
| 2016 | 96.5 | 105.8 | 9.2 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 100.3 | 101.3 | 0.9 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.4 | 2.5 points Bakersfield-Delano 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 Barnstable Town more expensive than Bakersfield-Delano?
Barnstable Town is 2.5% less expensive than Bakersfield-Delano. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Barnstable Town equals $100K in Bakersfield-Delano?
A $100,000 salary in Bakersfield-Delano has the same purchasing power as $97,487 in Barnstable Town. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Bakersfield-Delano and Barnstable Town?
Rents in Bakersfield-Delano are indexed at 90.3 while Barnstable Town is at 90.0 (national average = 100). Bakersfield-Delano 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.