Overall
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 103.6
Diff -5.0 RPP
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 4.8% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin.
4.8% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 4.8% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin buys about the same as $95,206 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ≈ $95,206 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (+11.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair IL:TX 103.6→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE IL × 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
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 107.3
Diff -6.6 RPP
Services
Diff +11.7 RPP
Rents
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 112.0
Diff -7.5 RPP
| Category | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 98.6 | -5.0 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 100.6 | -6.6 |
| Services | 83.6 | 95.3 | +11.7 |
| Rents | 112.0 | 104.5 | -7.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 103.6
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 107.3
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 83.6
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 112.0
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 11.7 points higher. But services 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 4.8% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.0-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to $95,206 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
103.6
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,603 | $-2,397 |
| $75,000 | $71,405 | $-3,595 |
| $100,000 | $95,206 | $-4,794 |
| $150,000 | $142,809 | $-7,191 |
$ in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 4.8% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin has the same purchasing power as $95,206 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin are indexed at 112.0 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 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.