What it costs to live in Texas
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-2.82%
below average
Housing
-2.56%
ranks 20 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$97
costs this here
Price rank
22
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Texas
- Buying things in Texas costs less than it does in most of the country, ranking 22 nationally. The gap is about 2.82%, which turns a hundred dollars of national-average shopping into $97. It is the quiet half of any decision about where to live.
- Texas does not have a housing story separate from its cost-of-living story. The two match. Housing is about 2.56% from the national average and overall prices are about 2.82% from it. That is rarer than it sounds, and it makes Texas much easier to plan around than states where the two numbers pull apart.
- Put a wage against it. Seventy-five thousand dollars of salary, spent at Texas prices, stretches as far as $77,180 would at national-average prices. That is before any tax. It is purely what the local cost of things does to what you earn.
- Texas's overall price level sits about 2.82% beneath the national average, ranking 22 across all jurisdictions, and the national one-hundred-dollar basket costs $97. Since BEA weights the basket to national consumption patterns, this figure is comparable across states in a way that surveys of household spending are not.
- The divergence between Texas's shelter and all-items parities is about 0.26% — housing at about 2.56% from national, overall prices at about 2.82%, housing rank 20. Most states separate substantially on this measure because shelter cannot arbitrage across state lines. Where they do not, a single price index is an adequate planning input, which is not true of the majority of jurisdictions.
- A seventy-five thousand dollar salary deflated by Texas's price parity is equivalent to $77,180 of national-average purchasing power. ⚠️ No tax is included: this isolates the price level from the tax system entirely, and both act on the same income. Note also that the index says nothing about local nominal wages, so it should not be read on its own as evidence that a household is better or worse off here.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $61,593 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 97.175 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 97.436 |
| Cheapest place to live | 30th of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Florida | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,846 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing97.436
- Goods98.412
- Services96.419
| Housing | 97.436 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 98.412 |
| Services | 96.419 |
| All items | 97.175 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 32nd of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Texas on take-home | 5th |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 22nd |
| Places moved | 17 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Texas against Florida
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Texas | Florida |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $61,593 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $63,383 | $59,537 |
| Share of pay taxed | 17.88% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 6.25% | 6% |
| Groceries exempt here | Yes | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 1.49% | 0.76% |
| Price level | 97.2 | 103.5 |
| Housing prices | 97.4 | 123.1 |
| Fuel tax | 20¢ | 22¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $1.41 | $1.34 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Texas, Harris County (Houston); Florida, Statewide average. Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $75,000 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,655 |
| Prices in Florida | 103 vs 97 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Texas with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -2.56% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -1.59% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -3.58% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -2.82% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Texas prices, buys what $77,180 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Texas, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Texas charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Texas.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Texas will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Texas to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
It stretches the same pay further: $97 of national-average goods for every hundred dollars. Comparing salaries between states without this is comparing two different things.
Is it just housing that is different here?
Not only. In most states housing does nearly all the work, but Texas is less lopsided than that — goods and services sit closer to the housing figure, so the difference shows up across ordinary spending rather than concentrating in rent.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Adjust the pay before you compare it, not after. A reference salary is worth $77,180 here once prices are taken into account — and the tax side moves separately, so a full comparison needs both adjustments rather than either one alone.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Texas's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $97 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How do this state's components decompose?
Texas's components are less dispersed than the national pattern, in which housing typically dominates. Goods and other-services parities sit nearer the housing parity, so the all-items figure reflects broad-based rather than shelter-concentrated divergence.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $77,180 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.