Burlington-South Burlington vs Kingston

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Kingston is 0.2% less expensive than Burlington-South Burlington.

0.2% less expensive

Kingston, NY is 0.2% less expensive than Burlington-South Burlington, VT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.7 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Burlington-South Burlington buys about the same as $99,762 in Kingston; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 100.9 (Burlington-South Burlington) vs 100.7 (Kingston)
  • $100k in Burlington-South Burlington ≈ $99,762 purchasing power in Kingston
  • Services drives the gap (+8.0 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair VT:NY 100.9→100.7

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE VT × NY
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-ABOVE Both above 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.

Burlington-South Burlington
100.9
Cost Index
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Burlington-South Burlington, VT and Kingston, NY are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Kingston is 8.0 points higher. But services and rents and goods 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 exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.

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 Burlington-South Burlington to $99,762 in Kingston, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Burlington-South Burlington
100.9
Kingston
100.7
Goods
Burlington-South Burlington
97.3
Kingston
99.7
Services
Burlington-South Burlington
125.5
Kingston
133.6
Rents
Burlington-South Burlington
103.8
Kingston
110.2

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Burlington-South Burlington would need to be in Kingston for the same purchasing power:

In Burlington-South Burlington In Kingston Difference
$50,000 $49,881 $-119
$75,000 $74,822 $-178
$100,000 $99,762 $-238
$150,000 $149,643 $-357
$ in Burlington-South Burlington = in Kingston

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 100.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kingston more expensive than Burlington-South Burlington?

Kingston is 0.2% less expensive than Burlington-South Burlington. The overall cost index is 100.7 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).

What salary in Kingston equals $100K in Burlington-South Burlington?

A $100,000 salary in Burlington-South Burlington has the same purchasing power as $99,762 in Kingston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Burlington-South Burlington and Kingston?

Rents in Burlington-South Burlington are indexed at 103.8 while Kingston is at 110.2 (national average = 100). Kingston has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.