Overall
Diff -2.1 RPP
Charleston-North Charleston vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 2.1% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston.
2.1% less expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 2.1% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston, SC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 101.0). A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston buys about the same as $97,915 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 101.0 (Charleston-North Charleston) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Charleston-North Charleston ≈ $97,915 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Rents drives the gap (-21.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair SC:NJ 101.0→98.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE SC × NJ
- 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
| Category | Charleston-North Charleston | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 101.0 | 98.9 | -2.1 |
| Goods | 96.3 | 99.8 | +3.5 |
| Services | 88.2 | 109.2 | +21.0 |
| Rents | 119.8 | 98.7 | -21.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Charleston-North Charleston 101.0
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Charleston-North Charleston 96.3
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Charleston-North Charleston 88.2
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Charleston-North Charleston 119.8
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 21.1 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.
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 2.1% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston, SC, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.1-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Charleston-North Charleston is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Charleston-North Charleston corresponds to $97,915 in Atlantic City-Hammonton.
Charleston-North Charleston
101.0
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Charleston-North Charleston would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Charleston-North Charleston | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,958 | $-1,042 |
| $75,000 | $73,436 | $-1,564 |
| $100,000 | $97,915 | $-2,085 |
| $150,000 | $146,873 | $-3,127 |
$ in Charleston-North Charleston = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (101.0 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Charleston-North Charleston and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 13.3 to 2.1 RPP points. Charleston-North Charleston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 57.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (36.0 to 21.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Charleston-North Charleston RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.4 | 110.7 | 13.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 100.3 | 104.6 | 4.2 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 99.7 | 102.6 | 2.9 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 98.0 | 101.2 | 3.2 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2024 | 101.0 | 98.9 | 2.1 points Charleston-North Charleston 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 Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Charleston-North Charleston?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 2.1% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 101.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Charleston-North Charleston?
A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston has the same purchasing power as $97,915 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Charleston-North Charleston and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Charleston-North Charleston are indexed at 119.8 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (national average = 100). Charleston-North Charleston 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.