Overall
- Barnstable Town
- 98.4
Diff -1.7 RPP
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville vs Barnstable Town
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Barnstable Town is 1.7% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville.
1.7% less expensive
Barnstable Town, MA is 1.7% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.4 vs 100.0). A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville buys about the same as $98,346 in Barnstable Town; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville) vs 98.4 (Barnstable Town)
- $100k in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville ≈ $98,346 purchasing power in Barnstable Town
- Services drives the gap (+70.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:MA 100.0→98.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE FL × MA
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- 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.
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
Barnstable Town
98.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL and Barnstable Town, MA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.7 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Barnstable Town is 70.4 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.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is above 100 while Barnstable Town is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 $98,346 in Barnstable Town, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Barnstable Town
- 97.0
Diff +0.8 RPP
Services
- Barnstable Town
- 158.4
Diff +70.4 RPP
Rents
- Barnstable Town
- 90.0
Diff -21.7 RPP
| Category | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.0 | 98.4 | -1.7 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 97.0 | +0.8 |
| Services | 88.1 | 158.4 | +70.4 |
| Rents | 111.7 | 90.0 | -21.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Barnstable Town 98.4
Goods
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Barnstable Town 97.0
Services
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Barnstable Town 158.4
Rents
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Barnstable Town 90.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville would need to be in Barnstable Town for the same purchasing power:
| In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | In Barnstable Town | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,173 | $-827 |
| $75,000 | $73,760 | $-1,240 |
| $100,000 | $98,346 | $-1,654 |
| $150,000 | $147,519 | $-2,481 |
$ in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville = in Barnstable Town
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.0 → 98.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Barnstable Town more expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Barnstable Town is 1.7% less expensive than Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. The overall cost index is 98.4 vs 100.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Barnstable Town equals $100K in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
A $100,000 salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville has the same purchasing power as $98,346 in Barnstable Town. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Barnstable Town?
Rents in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville are indexed at 111.7 while Barnstable Town is at 90.0 (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.