Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff +7.1 RPP
Barnstable Town vs Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is 7.2% more expensive than Barnstable Town.
7.2% more expensive
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA is 7.2% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 105.4 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town buys about the same as $107,189 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Barnstable Town) vs 105.4 (Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro)
- $100k in Barnstable Town ≈ $107,189 purchasing power in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
- Services drives the gap (-51.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MA:OR 98.4→105.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MA × OR
- 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 +8.2 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff -51.5 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff +35.1 RPP
| Category | Barnstable Town | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 105.4 | +7.1 |
| Goods | 97.0 | 105.2 | +8.2 |
| Services | 158.4 | 107.0 | -51.5 |
| Rents | 90.0 | 125.1 | +35.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Barnstable Town 98.4
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 105.4
Goods
Barnstable Town 97.0
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 105.2
Services
Barnstable Town 158.4
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 107.0
Rents
Barnstable Town 90.0
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 125.1
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is 51.5 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA is 7.2% more expensive than Barnstable Town, MA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.1-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 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 $107,189 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
105.4
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Barnstable Town would need to be in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro for the same purchasing power:
| In Barnstable Town | In Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,594 | +$3,594 |
| $75,000 | $80,391 | +$5,391 |
| $100,000 | $107,189 | +$7,189 |
| $150,000 | $160,783 | +$10,783 |
$ in Barnstable Town = in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 105.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Barnstable Town and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 4.1 to 7.1 RPP points. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 29.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (5.7 to 35.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Barnstable Town RPP | Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.8 | 98.7 | 4.1 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.9 | 104.3 | 3.4 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2016 | 105.8 | 101.5 | 4.2 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 105.8 | 4.6 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro higher |
| 2024 | 98.4 | 105.4 | 7.1 points Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 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 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro more expensive than Barnstable Town?
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is 7.2% more expensive than Barnstable Town. The overall cost index is 105.4 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro equals $100K in Barnstable Town?
A $100,000 salary in Barnstable Town has the same purchasing power as $107,189 in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Barnstable Town and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro?
Rents in Barnstable Town are indexed at 90.0 while Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro is at 125.1 (national average = 100). Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro 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.