Overall
- Lexington Park
- 100.8
- Lancaster
- 98.3
Diff -2.5 RPP
Lexington Park vs Lancaster
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lancaster is 2.5% less expensive than Lexington Park.
2.5% less expensive
Lancaster, PA is 2.5% less expensive than Lexington Park, MD on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 100.8). A $100,000 salary in Lexington Park buys about the same as $97,516 in Lancaster; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.8 (Lexington Park) vs 98.3 (Lancaster)
- $100k in Lexington Park ≈ $97,516 purchasing power in Lancaster
- Rents drives the gap (-10.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MD:PA 100.8→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MD × PA
- 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
Goods
- Lexington Park
- 99.7
- Lancaster
- 100.7
Diff +1.0 RPP
Services
- Lexington Park
- 106.4
- Lancaster
- 107.3
Diff +0.9 RPP
Rents
- Lexington Park
- 103.8
- Lancaster
- 93.8
Diff -10.0 RPP
| Category | Lexington Park | Lancaster | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.8 | 98.3 | -2.5 |
| Goods | 99.7 | 100.7 | +1.0 |
| Services | 106.4 | 107.3 | +0.9 |
| Rents | 103.8 | 93.8 | -10.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Lexington Park 100.8
Lancaster 98.3
Goods
Lexington Park 99.7
Lancaster 100.7
Services
Lexington Park 106.4
Lancaster 107.3
Rents
Lexington Park 103.8
Lancaster 93.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Lancaster is 10.0 points lower. But goods and services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Lancaster, PA is 2.5% less expensive than Lexington Park, MD, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Lexington Park is above 100 while Lancaster 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 Lexington Park corresponds to $97,516 in Lancaster.
Lexington Park
100.8
Cost Index
Lancaster
98.3
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Lexington Park would need to be in Lancaster for the same purchasing power:
| In Lexington Park | In Lancaster | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,758 | $-1,242 |
| $75,000 | $73,137 | $-1,863 |
| $100,000 | $97,516 | $-2,484 |
| $150,000 | $146,274 | $-3,726 |
$ in Lexington Park = in Lancaster
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.8 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Lexington Park and Lancaster share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 2.8 to 2.5 RPP points. Lexington Park remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (22.0 to 10.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Lexington Park RPP | Lancaster RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.0 | 100.2 | 2.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2012 | 102.6 | 97.8 | 4.8 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2016 | 103.3 | 99.4 | 3.9 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2020 | 101.4 | 97.9 | 3.5 points Lexington Park higher |
| 2024 | 100.8 | 98.3 | 2.5 points Lexington Park 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 Lancaster more expensive than Lexington Park?
Lancaster is 2.5% less expensive than Lexington Park. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 100.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lancaster equals $100K in Lexington Park?
A $100,000 salary in Lexington Park has the same purchasing power as $97,516 in Lancaster. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Lexington Park and Lancaster?
Rents in Lexington Park are indexed at 103.8 while Lancaster is at 93.8 (national average = 100). Lexington Park 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.