Overall
- Lancaster
- 98.3
Diff -2.6 RPP
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater vs Lancaster
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lancaster is 2.6% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
2.6% less expensive
Lancaster, PA is 2.6% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater buys about the same as $97,390 in Lancaster; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater) vs 98.3 (Lancaster)
- $100k in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ≈ $97,390 purchasing power in Lancaster
- Rents drives the gap (-32.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:PA 100.9→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE FL × PA
- 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
- Lancaster
- 100.7
Diff +5.2 RPP
Services
- Lancaster
- 107.3
Diff +18.7 RPP
Rents
- Lancaster
- 93.8
Diff -32.0 RPP
| Category | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | Lancaster | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.3 | -2.6 |
| Goods | 95.5 | 100.7 | +5.2 |
| Services | 88.5 | 107.3 | +18.7 |
| Rents | 125.8 | 93.8 | -32.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 100.9
Lancaster 98.3
Goods
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 95.5
Lancaster 100.7
Services
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 88.5
Lancaster 107.3
Rents
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 125.8
Lancaster 93.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Lancaster is 32.0 points lower. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Lancaster, PA is 2.6% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is above 100 while Lancaster 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 housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater corresponds to $97,390 in Lancaster.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
100.9
Cost Index
Lancaster
98.3
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater would need to be in Lancaster for the same purchasing power:
| In Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | In Lancaster | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,695 | $-1,305 |
| $75,000 | $73,043 | $-1,957 |
| $100,000 | $97,390 | $-2,610 |
| $150,000 | $146,085 | $-3,915 |
$ in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater = in Lancaster
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Lancaster share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 3.1 to 2.6 RPP points. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 14.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (17.7 to 32.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater RPP | Lancaster RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 103.3 | 100.2 | 3.1 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2012 | 100.3 | 97.8 | 2.5 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2016 | 97.1 | 99.4 | 2.3 points Lancaster higher |
| 2020 | 101.3 | 97.9 | 3.5 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.3 | 2.6 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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 Lancaster more expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater?
Lancaster is 2.6% less expensive than Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lancaster equals $100K in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater?
A $100,000 salary in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater has the same purchasing power as $97,390 in Lancaster. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater and Lancaster?
Rents in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater are indexed at 125.8 while Lancaster is at 93.8 (national average = 100). Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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.