Bellingham vs Burlington
Metro-area medians — Bellingham, WA Metro Area vs Burlington-South Burlington, VT Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Burlington comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Bellingham and Burlington cost about the same to live in, but Burlington households earn about 4% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Burlington.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Bellingham leaves you about $1,476/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Bellingham for
- + Median rent
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose Burlington for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
Bellingham vs Burlington — frequently asked
- Is Bellingham cheaper than Burlington?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Bellingham and Burlington metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Bellingham or Burlington?
- Burlington has the higher median household income — $89,615 versus $86,162 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 4% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Bellingham or Burlington?
- A paycheck stretches further in Burlington. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $88,773 there versus $83,382 in Bellingham.
- Which has cheaper rent, Bellingham or Burlington?
- Bellingham has cheaper rent — a median of $1,569/mo versus $1,631/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).