Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
- Colorado Springs
- 100.7
Diff +2.4 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Colorado Springs
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Colorado Springs is 2.4% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
2.4% more expensive
Colorado Springs, CO is 2.4% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.7 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $102,396 in Colorado Springs; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 100.7 (Colorado Springs)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $102,396 purchasing power in Colorado Springs
- Services drives the gap (-75.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:CO 98.4→100.7
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MA × CO
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
- Colorado Springs
- 96.1
Diff -1.0 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
- Colorado Springs
- 83.2
Diff -75.3 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
- Colorado Springs
- 116.2
Diff +26.2 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Colorado Springs | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 100.7 | +2.4 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 96.1 | -1.0 |
| Services | 158.4 | 83.2 | -75.3 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 116.2 | +26.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Colorado Springs 100.7
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Colorado Springs 96.1
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Colorado Springs 83.2
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Colorado Springs 116.2
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Colorado Springs is 75.3 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.
Colorado Springs, CO is 2.4% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.4-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Colorado Springs 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 $102,396 in Colorado Springs, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Colorado Springs
100.7
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Colorado Springs for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Colorado Springs | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,198 | +$1,198 |
| $75,000 | $76,797 | +$1,797 |
| $100,000 | $102,396 | +$2,396 |
| $150,000 | $153,593 | +$3,593 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Colorado Springs
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 100.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Colorado Springs share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 4.8 to 2.4 RPP points. Colorado Springs remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 29.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (3.3 to 26.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Colorado Springs RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 98.0 | 4.8 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 102.2 | 1.3 points Colorado Springs higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 99.0 | 6.8 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 98.6 | 2.7 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 100.7 | 2.4 points Colorado Springs 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 Colorado Springs more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Colorado Springs is 2.4% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 100.7 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Colorado Springs equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $102,396 in Colorado Springs. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Colorado Springs?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Colorado Springs is at 116.2 (national average = 100). Colorado Springs 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.