Overall
- Bangor
- 96.5
Diff -3.5 RPP
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville vs Bangor
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Bangor is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.
3.5% less expensive
Bangor, ME is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.5 vs 100.0). A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville buys about the same as $96,503 in Bangor; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville) vs 96.5 (Bangor)
- $100k in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville ≈ $96,503 purchasing power in Bangor
- Services drives the gap (+46.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:ME 100.0→96.5
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE FL × ME
- 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
- Bangor
- 97.2
Diff +0.9 RPP
Services
- Bangor
- 134.8
Diff +46.7 RPP
Rents
- Bangor
- 77.7
Diff -34.0 RPP
| Category | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Bangor | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.0 | 96.5 | -3.5 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 97.2 | +0.9 |
| Services | 88.1 | 134.8 | +46.7 |
| Rents | 111.7 | 77.7 | -34.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Bangor 96.5
Goods
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Bangor 97.2
Services
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Bangor 134.8
Rents
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Bangor 77.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Bangor is 46.7 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Bangor, ME is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is above 100 while Bangor 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville to $96,503 in Bangor, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
Bangor
96.5
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville would need to be in Bangor for the same purchasing power:
| In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | In Bangor | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,252 | $-1,748 |
| $75,000 | $72,377 | $-2,623 |
| $100,000 | $96,503 | $-3,497 |
| $150,000 | $144,755 | $-5,245 |
$ in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville = in Bangor
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.0 → 96.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Bangor share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 6.0 to 3.5 RPP points. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 9.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (43.9 to 34.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville RPP | Bangor RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.9 | 93.9 | 6.0 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2012 | 98.0 | 96.3 | 1.7 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2016 | 98.8 | 93.4 | 5.4 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2020 | 96.8 | 97.5 | 0.8 points Bangor higher |
| 2024 | 100.0 | 96.5 | 3.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 Bangor more expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Bangor is 3.5% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. The overall cost index is 96.5 vs 100.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Bangor equals $100K in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville has the same purchasing power as $96,503 in Bangor. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Bangor?
Rents in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville are indexed at 111.7 while Bangor is at 77.7 (national average = 100). Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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.