Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff +2.6 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Charleston-North Charleston
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Charleston-North Charleston is 2.7% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
2.7% more expensive
Charleston-North Charleston, SC is 2.7% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 101.0 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $102,655 in Charleston-North Charleston; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 101.0 (Charleston-North Charleston)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $102,655 purchasing power in Charleston-North Charleston
- Services drives the gap (-70.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:SC 98.4→101.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MA × SC
- 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
Diff -0.7 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff -70.2 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff +29.8 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Charleston-North Charleston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 101.0 | +2.6 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 96.3 | -0.7 |
| Services | 158.4 | 88.2 | -70.2 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 119.8 | +29.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Charleston-North Charleston 101.0
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Charleston-North Charleston 96.3
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Charleston-North Charleston 88.2
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Charleston-North Charleston 119.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Charleston-North Charleston is 70.2 points lower. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Charleston-North Charleston, SC is 2.7% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Charleston-North Charleston 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Barnstable Town to $102,655 in Charleston-North Charleston, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Charleston-North Charleston
101.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Charleston-North Charleston for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Charleston-North Charleston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,327 | +$1,327 |
| $75,000 | $76,991 | +$1,991 |
| $100,000 | $102,655 | +$2,655 |
| $150,000 | $153,982 | +$3,982 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Charleston-North Charleston
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 101.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Charleston-North Charleston share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.4 to 2.6 RPP points. Charleston-North Charleston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 39.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.8 to 29.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Charleston-North Charleston RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 97.4 | 5.4 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 100.3 | 0.6 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 99.7 | 6.1 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 98.0 | 3.2 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 101.0 | 2.6 points Charleston-North Charleston 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 Charleston-North Charleston more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Charleston-North Charleston is 2.7% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 101.0 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Charleston-North Charleston equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $102,655 in Charleston-North Charleston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Charleston-North Charleston?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Charleston-North Charleston is at 119.8 (national average = 100). Charleston-North Charleston 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.