Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff +6.5 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
6.6% more expensive
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 104.8 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $106,579 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $106,579 purchasing power in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
- Services drives the gap (-65.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:MN 98.4→104.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MA × MN
- 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 +6.0 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff -65.0 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff +21.8 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 104.8 | +6.5 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 103.1 | +6.0 |
| Services | 158.4 | 93.5 | -65.0 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 111.8 | +21.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 65.0 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 $106,579 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,290 | +$3,290 |
| $75,000 | $79,935 | +$4,935 |
| $100,000 | $106,579 | +$6,579 |
| $150,000 | $159,869 | +$9,869 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 104.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.1 to 6.5 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (52.7 to 65.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 102.9 | 0.1 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 101.2 | 0.3 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 102.3 | 3.4 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 102.4 | 1.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 104.8 | 6.5 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.6% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 104.8 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $106,579 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is at 111.8 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.