Overall
- Albany
- 102.1
Diff -3.5 RPP
Albany vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 3.4% less expensive than Albany.
3.4% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 3.4% less expensive than Albany, OR on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 102.1). A $100,000 salary in Albany buys about the same as $96,600 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 102.1 (Albany) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Albany ≈ $96,600 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (-9.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair OR:TX 102.1→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE OR × TX
- 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
- Albany
- 105.3
Diff -4.6 RPP
Services
- Albany
- 104.8
Diff -9.5 RPP
Rents
- Albany
- 101.1
Diff +3.5 RPP
| Category | Albany | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 102.1 | 98.6 | -3.5 |
| Goods | 105.3 | 100.6 | -4.6 |
| Services | 104.8 | 95.3 | -9.5 |
| Rents | 101.1 | 104.5 | +3.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Albany 102.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Albany 105.3
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Albany 104.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Albany 101.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 9.5 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 3.4% less expensive than Albany, OR, 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: Albany is above 100 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 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 Albany to $96,600 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Albany
102.1
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Albany would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Albany | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,300 | $-1,700 |
| $75,000 | $72,450 | $-2,550 |
| $100,000 | $96,600 | $-3,400 |
| $150,000 | $144,901 | $-5,099 |
$ in Albany = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (102.1 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Albany and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.1 to 3.5 RPP points. Albany remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 38.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (28.7 to 9.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Albany RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.3 | 99.4 | 0.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 96.6 | 100.0 | 3.5 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2016 | 98.9 | 102.4 | 3.4 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 102.7 | 100.0 | 2.7 points Albany higher |
| 2024 | 102.1 | 98.6 | 3.5 points Albany 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Albany?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 3.4% less expensive than Albany. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 102.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Albany?
A $100,000 salary in Albany has the same purchasing power as $96,600 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Albany and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Albany are indexed at 101.1 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 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.