Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff -1.0 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is 1% less expensive than Barnstable Town.
1% less expensive
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC is 1% less expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.3 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $98,980 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 97.3 (Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $98,980 purchasing power in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
- Services drives the gap (-69.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:NC 98.4→97.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MA × NC
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- 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
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
97.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Barnstable Town, MA and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is 69.3 points lower. But rents 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.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
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 $98,980 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
Diff -0.4 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff -69.3 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff +7.6 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 97.3 | -1.0 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 96.6 | -0.4 |
| Services | 158.4 | 89.2 | -69.3 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 97.6 | +7.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 97.3
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 96.6
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 89.2
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 97.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.5 to 1.0 RPP points. Barnstable Town remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 29.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (21.7 to 7.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 95.3 | 7.5 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 96.1 | 4.8 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 96.9 | 8.8 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 94.2 | 7.1 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 97.3 | 1.0 points Barnstable Town 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 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,490 | $-510 |
| $75,000 | $74,235 | $-765 |
| $100,000 | $98,980 | $-1,020 |
| $150,000 | $148,470 | $-1,530 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 97.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is 1% less expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 97.3 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $98,980 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is at 97.6 (national average = 100). Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 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.