Overall
- Bangor
- 96.5
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 103.7
Diff +7.2 RPP
Bangor vs Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 7.4% more expensive than Bangor.
7.4% more expensive
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA is 7.4% more expensive than Bangor, ME on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.7 vs 96.5). A $100,000 salary in Bangor buys about the same as $107,421 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 96.5 (Bangor) vs 103.7 (Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater)
- $100k in Bangor ≈ $107,421 purchasing power in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- Services drives the gap (-43.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ME:WA 96.5→103.7
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE ME × 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
- Bangor
- 97.2
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 105.0
Diff +7.9 RPP
Services
- Bangor
- 134.8
Diff -43.1 RPP
Rents
- Bangor
- 77.7
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 116.7
Diff +39.0 RPP
| Category | Bangor | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 96.5 | 103.7 | +7.2 |
| Goods | 97.2 | 105.0 | +7.9 |
| Services | 134.8 | 91.7 | -43.1 |
| Rents | 77.7 | 116.7 | +39.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Bangor 96.5
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 103.7
Goods
Bangor 97.2
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 105.0
Services
Bangor 134.8
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 91.7
Rents
Bangor 77.7
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 116.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 43.1 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA is 7.4% more expensive than Bangor, ME, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is above 100 while Bangor 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Bangor to $107,421 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Bangor
96.5
Cost Index
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
103.7
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Bangor would need to be in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater for the same purchasing power:
| In Bangor | In Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,711 | +$3,711 |
| $75,000 | $80,566 | +$5,566 |
| $100,000 | $107,421 | +$7,421 |
| $150,000 | $161,132 | +$11,132 |
$ in Bangor = in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (96.5 → 103.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Bangor and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 11.4 to 7.2 RPP points. Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 14.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (57.4 to 43.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Bangor RPP | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 93.9 | 105.4 | 11.4 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2012 | 96.3 | 101.3 | 5.0 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2016 | 93.4 | 106.0 | 12.7 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2020 | 97.5 | 101.9 | 4.4 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2024 | 96.5 | 103.7 | 7.2 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 Bangor?
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is 7.4% more expensive than Bangor. The overall cost index is 103.7 vs 96.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater equals $100K in Bangor?
A $100,000 salary in Bangor has the same purchasing power as $107,421 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Bangor and Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?
Rents in Bangor are indexed at 77.7 while Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is at 116.7 (national average = 100). Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 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.