Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 100.9
Diff +2.5 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Bakersfield-Delano
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Bakersfield-Delano is 2.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
2.6% more expensive
Bakersfield-Delano, CA is 2.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.9 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $102,578 in Bakersfield-Delano; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 100.9 (Bakersfield-Delano)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $102,578 purchasing power in Bakersfield-Delano
- Goods drives the gap (+8.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:CA 98.4→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MA × CA
- 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
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 105.2
Diff +8.2 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 158.3
Diff -0.2 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
- Bakersfield-Delano
- 90.3
Diff +0.3 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Bakersfield-Delano | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 100.9 | +2.5 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 105.2 | +8.2 |
| Services | 158.4 | 158.3 | -0.2 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 90.3 | +0.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Bakersfield-Delano 100.9
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Bakersfield-Delano 105.2
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Bakersfield-Delano 158.3
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Bakersfield-Delano 90.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Bakersfield-Delano is 8.2 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Bakersfield-Delano, CA is 2.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA, 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 $102,578 in Bakersfield-Delano as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Barnstable Town, then replace the national basket with your own.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Bakersfield-Delano
100.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Bakersfield-Delano for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Bakersfield-Delano | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,289 | +$1,289 |
| $75,000 | $76,933 | +$1,933 |
| $100,000 | $102,578 | +$2,578 |
| $150,000 | $153,866 | +$3,866 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Bakersfield-Delano
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 100.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Bakersfield-Delano 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 | Barnstable Town RPP | Bakersfield-Delano RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 96.9 | 5.9 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 101.1 | 0.1 points Bakersfield-Delano higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 96.5 | 9.2 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 100.3 | 0.9 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 100.9 | 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 Bakersfield-Delano more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Bakersfield-Delano is 2.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 100.9 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Bakersfield-Delano equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $102,578 in Bakersfield-Delano. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Bakersfield-Delano?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Bakersfield-Delano is at 90.3 (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.