Overall
- Kingston
- 100.7
Diff -1.9 RPP
Kingston vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 1.8% less expensive than Kingston.
1.8% less expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 1.8% less expensive than Kingston, NY on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 100.7). A $100,000 salary in Kingston buys about the same as $98,161 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.7 (Kingston) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Kingston ≈ $98,161 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Services drives the gap (-24.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NY:NJ 100.7→98.9
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE NY × 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.
Kingston
100.7
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Kingston, NY and Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.9 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 24.4 points lower. But 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.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Kingston is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Kingston to $98,161 in Atlantic City-Hammonton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Kingston
- 99.7
Diff +0.1 RPP
Services
- Kingston
- 133.6
- Atlantic City-Hammonton
- 109.2
Diff -24.4 RPP
Rents
- Kingston
- 110.2
Diff -11.5 RPP
| Category | Kingston | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.7 | 98.9 | -1.9 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 99.8 | +0.1 |
| Services | 133.6 | 109.2 | -24.4 |
| Rents | 110.2 | 98.7 | -11.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Kingston 100.7
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Kingston 99.7
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Kingston 133.6
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Kingston 110.2
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Kingston and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.6 to 1.9 RPP points. Kingston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 7.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (7.5 to 0.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Kingston RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 107.1 | 110.7 | 3.6 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 102.0 | 104.6 | 2.5 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 101.2 | 102.6 | 1.4 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 101.6 | 101.2 | 0.4 points Kingston higher |
| 2024 | 100.7 | 98.9 | 1.9 points Kingston 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Kingston would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Kingston | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,081 | $-919 |
| $75,000 | $73,621 | $-1,379 |
| $100,000 | $98,161 | $-1,839 |
| $150,000 | $147,242 | $-2,758 |
$ in Kingston = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.7 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Kingston?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 1.8% less expensive than Kingston. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 100.7 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Kingston?
A $100,000 salary in Kingston has the same purchasing power as $98,161 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Kingston and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Kingston are indexed at 110.2 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (national average = 100). Kingston 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.