Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
- Amherst Town-Northampton
- 100.2
Diff +1.9 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Amherst Town-Northampton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Amherst Town-Northampton is 1.9% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
1.9% more expensive
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA is 1.9% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.2 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $101,924 in Amherst Town-Northampton; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 100.2 (Amherst Town-Northampton)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $101,924 purchasing power in Amherst Town-Northampton
- Rents drives the gap (+7.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:MA 98.4→100.2
PHOTO-FINISH · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- SAME-STATE Same state · MA
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-PAR PP near-par
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.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Amherst Town-Northampton
100.2
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Barnstable Town, MA and Amherst Town-Northampton, MA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.9 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Rents creates the largest separation: Amherst Town-Northampton is 7.5 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Amherst Town-Northampton is above 100 while Barnstable Town is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Barnstable Town corresponds to $101,924 in Amherst Town-Northampton.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
Diff 0.0 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
- Amherst Town-Northampton
- 155.7
Diff -2.7 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff +7.5 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Amherst Town-Northampton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 100.2 | +1.9 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 97.0 | 0.0 |
| Services | 158.4 | 155.7 | -2.7 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 97.5 | +7.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Amherst Town-Northampton 100.2
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Amherst Town-Northampton 97.0
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Amherst Town-Northampton 155.7
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Amherst Town-Northampton 97.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Amherst Town-Northampton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.1 to 1.9 RPP points. Amherst Town-Northampton remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 25.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (18.2 to 7.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Amherst Town-Northampton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 99.7 | 3.1 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 99.3 | 1.6 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 99.7 | 6.1 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 101.8 | 0.5 points Amherst Town-Northampton higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 100.2 | 1.9 points Amherst Town-Northampton 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Amherst Town-Northampton for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Amherst Town-Northampton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,962 | +$962 |
| $75,000 | $76,443 | +$1,443 |
| $100,000 | $101,924 | +$1,924 |
| $150,000 | $152,886 | +$2,886 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Amherst Town-Northampton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 100.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Amherst Town-Northampton more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Amherst Town-Northampton is 1.9% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 100.2 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Amherst Town-Northampton equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $101,924 in Amherst Town-Northampton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Amherst Town-Northampton?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Amherst Town-Northampton is at 97.5 (national average = 100). Amherst Town-Northampton 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.