Overall
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 103.7
Diff -5.6 RPP
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater vs Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 5.4% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater.
5.4% less expensive
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is 5.4% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.1 vs 103.7). A $100,000 salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater buys about the same as $94,594 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 103.7 (Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater) vs 98.1 (Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos)
- $100k in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater ≈ $94,594 purchasing power in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
- Goods drives the gap (-11.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair WA:TX 103.7→98.1
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE WA × TX
- 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
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 105.0
Diff -11.3 RPP
Services
Diff -9.7 RPP
Rents
- Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
- 116.7
Diff +3.7 RPP
| Category | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.7 | 98.1 | -5.6 |
| Goods | 105.0 | 93.8 | -11.3 |
| Services | 91.7 | 82.0 | -9.7 |
| Rents | 116.7 | 120.4 | +3.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 103.7
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 98.1
Goods
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 105.0
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 93.8
Services
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 91.7
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 82.0
Rents
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 116.7
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 120.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 11.3 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is 5.4% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater is above 100 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $94,594 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, then replace the national basket with your own.
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater
103.7
Cost Index
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
98.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater would need to be in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos for the same purchasing power:
| In Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater | In Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,297 | $-2,703 |
| $75,000 | $70,946 | $-4,054 |
| $100,000 | $94,594 | $-5,406 |
| $150,000 | $141,892 | $-8,108 |
$ in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater = in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.7 → 98.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 5.8 to 5.6 RPP points. Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 28.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (18.8 to 9.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater RPP | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 105.4 | 99.6 | 5.8 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2012 | 101.3 | 100.9 | 0.4 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2016 | 106.0 | 102.6 | 3.5 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2020 | 101.9 | 101.1 | 0.8 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater higher |
| 2024 | 103.7 | 98.1 | 5.6 points Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater 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 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos more expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 5.4% less expensive than Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater. The overall cost index is 98.1 vs 103.7 (national average = 100).
What salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos equals $100K in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater?
A $100,000 salary in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater has the same purchasing power as $94,594 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos?
Rents in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater are indexed at 116.7 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is at 120.4 (national average = 100). Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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.