Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff -4.7 RPP
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vs Barnstable Town
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Barnstable Town is 4.6% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
4.6% less expensive
Barnstable Town, MA is 4.6% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 103.1). A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington buys about the same as $95,403 in Barnstable Town; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) vs 98.4 (Barnstable Town)
- $100k in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ≈ $95,403 purchasing power in Barnstable Town
- Services drives the gap (+67.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:MA 103.1→98.4
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE TX × MA
- 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 -5.8 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff +67.7 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff -27.9 RPP
| Category | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.1 | 98.4 | -4.7 |
| Goods | 102.8 | 97.0 | -5.8 |
| Services | 90.7 | 158.4 | +67.7 |
| Rents | 117.9 | 90.0 | -27.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Barnstable Town 98.4
Goods
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Barnstable Town 97.0
Services
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Barnstable Town 158.4
Rents
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Barnstable Town 90.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Barnstable Town is 67.7 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Barnstable Town, MA is 4.6% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.7-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington to $95,403 in Barnstable Town, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington would need to be in Barnstable Town for the same purchasing power:
| In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | In Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,702 | $-2,298 |
| $75,000 | $71,552 | $-3,448 |
| $100,000 | $95,403 | $-4,597 |
| $150,000 | $143,105 | $-6,895 |
$ in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington = in Barnstable Town
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.1 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Barnstable Town share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.4 to 4.7 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 37.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (30.7 to 67.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Barnstable Town RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 101.4 | 102.8 | 1.4 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2012 | 100.8 | 100.9 | 0.2 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2016 | 98.0 | 105.8 | 7.7 points Barnstable Town higher |
| 2020 | 104.5 | 101.3 | 3.3 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 103.1 | 98.4 | 4.7 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 Barnstable Town more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Barnstable Town is 4.6% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 103.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Barnstable Town equals $100K in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has the same purchasing power as $95,403 in Barnstable Town. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Barnstable Town?
Rents in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington are indexed at 117.9 while Barnstable Town is at 90.0 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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.