Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim vs Barnstable Town

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Barnstable Town is 13.4% less expensive than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim.

13.4% less expensive

Barnstable Town, MA is 13.4% less expensive than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 113.6). A $100,000 salary in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim buys about the same as $86,603 in Barnstable Town; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 113.6 (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim) vs 98.4 (Barnstable Town)
  • $100k in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim ≈ $86,603 purchasing power in Barnstable Town
  • Rents drives the gap (-80.4 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair CA:MA 113.6→98.4

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE CA × MA
  • RENT-LED Rent-led gap
  • 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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim would need to be in Barnstable Town for the same purchasing power:

In Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim In Barnstable Town Difference
$50,000 $43,301 $-6,699
$75,000 $64,952 $-10,048
$100,000 $86,603 $-13,397
$150,000 $129,904 $-20,096
$ in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim = in Barnstable Town

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (113.6 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA and Barnstable Town, MA sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 15.2 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is above 100 while Barnstable Town is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Rents leads the difference, with Barnstable Town 80.4 points lower than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.

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 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim corresponds to $86,603 in Barnstable Town.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
113.6
Barnstable Town
98.4
Goods
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
106.6
Barnstable Town
97.0
Services
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
158.6
Barnstable Town
158.4
Rents
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
170.4
Barnstable Town
90.0

Vertical line = national average (100)

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
113.6
Cost Index
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Barnstable Town more expensive than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim?

Barnstable Town is 13.4% less expensive than Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 113.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Barnstable Town equals $100K in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim?

A $100,000 salary in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has the same purchasing power as $86,603 in Barnstable Town. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and Barnstable Town?

Rents in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim are indexed at 170.4 while Barnstable Town is at 90.0 (national average = 100). Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.