Overall
Diff -2.3 RPP
Charleston-North Charleston vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.3% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston.
2.3% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 2.3% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston, SC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 101.0). A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston buys about the same as $97,689 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 101.0 (Charleston-North Charleston) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Charleston-North Charleston ≈ $97,689 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Rents drives the gap (-15.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair SC:TX 101.0→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE SC × TX
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +4.3 RPP
Services
Diff +7.1 RPP
Rents
Diff -15.3 RPP
| Category | Charleston-North Charleston | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 101.0 | 98.6 | -2.3 |
| Goods | 96.3 | 100.6 | +4.3 |
| Services | 88.2 | 95.3 | +7.1 |
| Rents | 119.8 | 104.5 | -15.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Charleston-North Charleston 101.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Charleston-North Charleston 96.3
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Charleston-North Charleston 88.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Charleston-North Charleston 119.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 15.3 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.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 2.3% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston, SC, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.3-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Charleston-North Charleston 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 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 Charleston-North Charleston corresponds to $97,689 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
Charleston-North Charleston
101.0
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Charleston-North Charleston would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Charleston-North Charleston | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,845 | $-1,155 |
| $75,000 | $73,267 | $-1,733 |
| $100,000 | $97,689 | $-2,311 |
| $150,000 | $146,534 | $-3,466 |
$ in Charleston-North Charleston = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (101.0 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Charleston-North Charleston and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 2.0 to 2.3 RPP points. Charleston-North Charleston remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 18.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (3.0 to 15.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Charleston-North Charleston RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.4 | 99.4 | 2.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 100.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 points Charleston-North Charleston higher |
| 2016 | 99.7 | 102.4 | 2.6 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 98.0 | 100.0 | 2.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 101.0 | 98.6 | 2.3 points Charleston-North Charleston 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 Charleston-North Charleston?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.3% less expensive than Charleston-North Charleston. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 101.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Charleston-North Charleston?
A $100,000 salary in Charleston-North Charleston has the same purchasing power as $97,689 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Charleston-North Charleston and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Charleston-North Charleston are indexed at 119.8 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Charleston-North Charleston 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.