Overall
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 102.4
Diff -3.6 RPP
Mount Vernon-Anacortes vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 3.5% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes.
3.5% less expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 3.5% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 102.4). A $100,000 salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes buys about the same as $96,500 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 102.4 (Mount Vernon-Anacortes) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Mount Vernon-Anacortes ≈ $96,500 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Services drives the gap (+13.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair WA:NJ 102.4→98.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE WA × NJ
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 105.0
Diff -5.2 RPP
Services
- Atlantic City-Hammonton
- 109.2
Diff +13.2 RPP
Rents
- Mount Vernon-Anacortes
- 108.2
Diff -9.5 RPP
| Category | Mount Vernon-Anacortes | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 102.4 | 98.9 | -3.6 |
| Goods | 105.0 | 99.8 | -5.2 |
| Services | 96.0 | 109.2 | +13.2 |
| Rents | 108.2 | 98.7 | -9.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 102.4
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 105.0
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 96.0
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Mount Vernon-Anacortes 108.2
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 13.2 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 3.5% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Mount Vernon-Anacortes is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Mount Vernon-Anacortes to $96,500 in Atlantic City-Hammonton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Mount Vernon-Anacortes
102.4
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Mount Vernon-Anacortes | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,250 | $-1,750 |
| $75,000 | $72,375 | $-2,625 |
| $100,000 | $96,500 | $-3,500 |
| $150,000 | $144,749 | $-5,251 |
$ in Mount Vernon-Anacortes = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (102.4 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Mount Vernon-Anacortes and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.8 to 3.6 RPP points. Mount Vernon-Anacortes remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 36.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (49.5 to 13.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Mount Vernon-Anacortes RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 110.7 | 7.8 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 98.7 | 104.6 | 5.9 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 101.4 | 102.6 | 1.2 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 102.1 | 101.2 | 1.0 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes higher |
| 2024 | 102.4 | 98.9 | 3.6 points Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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 Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 3.5% less expensive than Mount Vernon-Anacortes. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 102.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Mount Vernon-Anacortes?
A $100,000 salary in Mount Vernon-Anacortes has the same purchasing power as $96,500 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Mount Vernon-Anacortes and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Mount Vernon-Anacortes are indexed at 108.2 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (national average = 100). Mount Vernon-Anacortes 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.