Overall
- Lancaster
- 98.3
- Amherst Town-Northampton
- 100.2
Diff +2.0 RPP
Lancaster vs Amherst Town-Northampton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Amherst Town-Northampton is 2% more expensive than Lancaster.
2% more expensive
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA is 2% more expensive than Lancaster, PA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.2 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Lancaster buys about the same as $102,021 in Amherst Town-Northampton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Lancaster) vs 100.2 (Amherst Town-Northampton)
- $100k in Lancaster ≈ $102,021 purchasing power in Amherst Town-Northampton
- Services drives the gap (+48.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair PA:MA 98.3→100.2
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE PA × MA
- 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.
Lancaster
98.3
Cost Index
Amherst Town-Northampton
100.2
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Lancaster, PA and Amherst Town-Northampton, MA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 2.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Amherst Town-Northampton is 48.5 points higher. 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: Amherst Town-Northampton is above 100 while Lancaster 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 Lancaster to $102,021 in Amherst Town-Northampton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Lancaster
- 100.7
Diff -3.7 RPP
Services
- Lancaster
- 107.3
- Amherst Town-Northampton
- 155.7
Diff +48.5 RPP
Rents
- Lancaster
- 93.8
Diff +3.7 RPP
| Category | Lancaster | Amherst Town-Northampton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 100.2 | +2.0 |
| Goods | 100.7 | 97.0 | -3.7 |
| Services | 107.3 | 155.7 | +48.5 |
| Rents | 93.8 | 97.5 | +3.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Lancaster 98.3
Amherst Town-Northampton 100.2
Goods
Lancaster 100.7
Amherst Town-Northampton 97.0
Services
Lancaster 107.3
Amherst Town-Northampton 155.7
Rents
Lancaster 93.8
Amherst Town-Northampton 97.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Lancaster and Amherst Town-Northampton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.5 to 2.0 RPP points. Amherst Town-Northampton remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 17.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (31.3 to 48.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Lancaster RPP | Amherst Town-Northampton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 100.2 | 99.7 | 0.5 points Lancaster higher |
| 2012 | 97.8 | 99.3 | 1.5 points Amherst Town-Northampton higher |
| 2016 | 99.4 | 99.7 | 0.4 points Amherst Town-Northampton higher |
| 2020 | 97.9 | 101.8 | 3.9 points Amherst Town-Northampton higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 100.2 | 2.0 points Amherst Town-Northampton 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 Lancaster would need to be in Amherst Town-Northampton for the same purchasing power:
| In Lancaster | In Amherst Town-Northampton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,011 | +$1,011 |
| $75,000 | $76,516 | +$1,516 |
| $100,000 | $102,021 | +$2,021 |
| $150,000 | $153,032 | +$3,032 |
$ in Lancaster = in Amherst Town-Northampton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 100.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Amherst Town-Northampton more expensive than Lancaster?
Amherst Town-Northampton is 2% more expensive than Lancaster. The overall cost index is 100.2 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Amherst Town-Northampton equals $100K in Lancaster?
A $100,000 salary in Lancaster has the same purchasing power as $102,021 in Amherst Town-Northampton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Lancaster and Amherst Town-Northampton?
Rents in Lancaster are indexed at 93.8 while Amherst Town-Northampton is at 97.5 (national average = 100). Amherst Town-Northampton 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.