Overall
- Morristown
- 86.4
Diff -0.4 RPP
Morristown vs Brownsville-Harlingen
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.5% less expensive than Morristown.
0.5% less expensive
Brownsville-Harlingen, TX is 0.5% less expensive than Morristown, TN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 86.0 vs 86.4). A $100,000 salary in Morristown buys about the same as $99,550 in Brownsville-Harlingen; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 86.4 (Morristown) vs 86.0 (Brownsville-Harlingen)
- $100k in Morristown ≈ $99,550 purchasing power in Brownsville-Harlingen
- Services drives the gap (+8.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TN:TX 86.4→86.0
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE TN × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- 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.
Morristown
86.4
Cost Index
Brownsville-Harlingen
86.0
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Morristown, TN and Brownsville-Harlingen, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Brownsville-Harlingen is 8.7 points higher. But services 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.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
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 Morristown to $99,550 in Brownsville-Harlingen, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Morristown
- 96.2
Diff -2.5 RPP
Services
- Morristown
- 72.4
Diff +8.7 RPP
Rents
- Morristown
- 59.0
Diff -1.3 RPP
| Category | Morristown | Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 86.4 | 86.0 | -0.4 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 93.8 | -2.5 |
| Services | 72.4 | 81.2 | +8.7 |
| Rents | 59.0 | 57.7 | -1.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Morristown 86.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 86.0
Goods
Morristown 96.2
Brownsville-Harlingen 93.8
Services
Morristown 72.4
Brownsville-Harlingen 81.2
Rents
Morristown 59.0
Brownsville-Harlingen 57.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Morristown and Brownsville-Harlingen share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 1.3 to 0.4 RPP points. Morristown remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 16.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (25.5 to 8.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Morristown RPP | Brownsville-Harlingen RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 86.3 | 85.0 | 1.3 points Morristown higher |
| 2012 | 88.6 | 89.2 | 0.6 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2016 | 85.6 | 89.5 | 3.9 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2020 | 84.6 | 85.0 | 0.4 points Brownsville-Harlingen higher |
| 2024 | 86.4 | 86.0 | 0.4 points Morristown 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 Morristown would need to be in Brownsville-Harlingen for the same purchasing power:
| In Morristown | In Brownsville-Harlingen | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,775 | $-225 |
| $75,000 | $74,662 | $-338 |
| $100,000 | $99,550 | $-450 |
| $150,000 | $149,324 | $-676 |
$ in Morristown = in Brownsville-Harlingen
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (86.4 → 86.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brownsville-Harlingen more expensive than Morristown?
Brownsville-Harlingen is 0.5% less expensive than Morristown. The overall cost index is 86.0 vs 86.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Brownsville-Harlingen equals $100K in Morristown?
A $100,000 salary in Morristown has the same purchasing power as $99,550 in Brownsville-Harlingen. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Morristown and Brownsville-Harlingen?
Rents in Morristown are indexed at 59.0 while Brownsville-Harlingen is at 57.7 (national average = 100). Morristown 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.