Overall
- Lubbock
- 91.3
Diff +0.4 RPP
College Station-Bryan vs Lubbock
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lubbock is 0.4% more expensive than College Station-Bryan.
0.4% more expensive
Lubbock, TX is 0.4% more expensive than College Station-Bryan, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.3 vs 91.0). A $100,000 salary in College Station-Bryan buys about the same as $100,402 in Lubbock; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 91.0 (College Station-Bryan) vs 91.3 (Lubbock)
- $100k in College Station-Bryan ≈ $100,402 purchasing power in Lubbock
- Services drives the gap (-1.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:TX 91.0→91.3
PHOTO-FINISH · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- SAME-STATE Same state · 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.
College Station-Bryan
91.0
Cost Index
Lubbock
91.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
College Station-Bryan, TX and Lubbock, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Lubbock is 1.6 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.
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 College Station-Bryan to $100,402 in Lubbock, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Lubbock
- 93.8
Diff 0.0 RPP
Services
- Lubbock
- 82.8
Diff -1.6 RPP
Rents
- Lubbock
- 76.4
Diff +1.3 RPP
| Category | College Station-Bryan | Lubbock | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 91.0 | 91.3 | +0.4 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 93.8 | 0.0 |
| Services | 84.4 | 82.8 | -1.6 |
| Rents | 75.1 | 76.4 | +1.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
College Station-Bryan 91.0
Lubbock 91.3
Goods
College Station-Bryan 93.8
Lubbock 93.8
Services
College Station-Bryan 84.4
Lubbock 82.8
Rents
College Station-Bryan 75.1
Lubbock 76.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
College Station-Bryan and Lubbock share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.5 to 0.4 RPP points. Lubbock remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 4.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (3.2 to 1.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | College Station-Bryan RPP | Lubbock RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.1 | 94.6 | 0.5 points College Station-Bryan higher |
| 2012 | 96.5 | 94.9 | 1.6 points College Station-Bryan higher |
| 2016 | 96.4 | 95.7 | 0.7 points College Station-Bryan higher |
| 2020 | 95.1 | 94.0 | 1.2 points College Station-Bryan higher |
| 2024 | 91.0 | 91.3 | 0.4 points Lubbock 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 College Station-Bryan would need to be in Lubbock for the same purchasing power:
| In College Station-Bryan | In Lubbock | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,201 | +$201 |
| $75,000 | $75,302 | +$302 |
| $100,000 | $100,402 | +$402 |
| $150,000 | $150,604 | +$604 |
$ in College Station-Bryan = in Lubbock
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.0 → 91.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lubbock more expensive than College Station-Bryan?
Lubbock is 0.4% more expensive than College Station-Bryan. The overall cost index is 91.3 vs 91.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lubbock equals $100K in College Station-Bryan?
A $100,000 salary in College Station-Bryan has the same purchasing power as $100,402 in Lubbock. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between College Station-Bryan and Lubbock?
Rents in College Station-Bryan are indexed at 75.1 while Lubbock is at 76.4 (national average = 100). Lubbock 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.