Overall
- Chico
- 101.2
Diff -2.6 RPP
Chico vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.5% less expensive than Chico.
2.5% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 2.5% less expensive than Chico, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 101.2). A $100,000 salary in Chico buys about the same as $97,462 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 101.2 (Chico) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Chico ≈ $97,462 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (-63.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:TX 101.2→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × 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
- Chico
- 105.2
Diff -4.5 RPP
Services
- Chico
- 158.8
Diff -63.5 RPP
Rents
- Chico
- 91.9
Diff +12.6 RPP
| Category | Chico | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 101.2 | 98.6 | -2.6 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 100.6 | -4.5 |
| Services | 158.8 | 95.3 | -63.5 |
| Rents | 91.9 | 104.5 | +12.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Chico 101.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Chico 105.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Chico 158.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Chico 91.9
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 63.5 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 2.5% less expensive than Chico, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chico 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 Chico to $97,462 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Chico
101.2
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Chico would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Chico | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,731 | $-1,269 |
| $75,000 | $73,097 | $-1,903 |
| $100,000 | $97,462 | $-2,538 |
| $150,000 | $146,194 | $-3,806 |
$ in Chico = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (101.2 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Chico and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.0 to 2.6 RPP points. Chico remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 63.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (0.6 to 63.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Chico RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 99.4 | 0.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 103.5 | 100.0 | 3.4 points Chico higher |
| 2016 | 97.1 | 102.4 | 5.3 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 101.8 | 100.0 | 1.8 points Chico higher |
| 2024 | 101.2 | 98.6 | 2.6 points Chico 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 Chico?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.5% less expensive than Chico. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 101.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Chico?
A $100,000 salary in Chico has the same purchasing power as $97,462 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Chico and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Chico are indexed at 91.9 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.