Overall
- Charlottesville
- 99.1
Diff -0.5 RPP
Charlottesville vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 0.5% less expensive than Charlottesville.
0.5% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 0.5% less expensive than Charlottesville, VA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 99.1). A $100,000 salary in Charlottesville buys about the same as $99,479 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 99.1 (Charlottesville) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Charlottesville ≈ $99,479 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (+6.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair VA:TX 99.1→98.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE VA × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
- 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.
Charlottesville
99.1
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Charlottesville, VA and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.5 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 6.3 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.
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 Charlottesville to $99,479 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Charlottesville
- 96.8
Diff +3.9 RPP
Services
- Charlottesville
- 89.0
Diff +6.3 RPP
Rents
- Charlottesville
- 107.0
Diff -2.5 RPP
| Category | Charlottesville | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 99.1 | 98.6 | -0.5 |
| Goods | 96.8 | 100.6 | +3.9 |
| Services | 89.0 | 95.3 | +6.3 |
| Rents | 107.0 | 104.5 | -2.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Charlottesville 99.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Charlottesville 96.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Charlottesville 89.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Charlottesville 107.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Charlottesville and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.3 to 0.5 RPP points. Charlottesville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 8.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (14.7 to 6.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Charlottesville RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.7 | 99.4 | 0.3 points Charlottesville higher |
| 2012 | 98.9 | 100.0 | 1.2 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2016 | 100.3 | 102.4 | 2.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 98.3 | 100.0 | 1.7 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 99.1 | 98.6 | 0.5 points Charlottesville 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Charlottesville would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Charlottesville | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,739 | $-261 |
| $75,000 | $74,609 | $-391 |
| $100,000 | $99,479 | $-521 |
| $150,000 | $149,218 | $-782 |
$ in Charlottesville = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (99.1 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Charlottesville?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 0.5% less expensive than Charlottesville. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 99.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Charlottesville?
A $100,000 salary in Charlottesville has the same purchasing power as $99,479 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Charlottesville and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Charlottesville are indexed at 107.0 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Charlottesville 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.