Overall
Diff +1.6 RPP
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 1.6% more expensive than Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin.
1.6% more expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 1.6% more expensive than Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 97.0). A $100,000 salary in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin buys about the same as $101,647 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 97.0 (Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin ≈ $101,647 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Rents drives the gap (+9.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:TX 97.0→98.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE FL × TX
- RENT-LED Rent-led gap
- 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.
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin
97.0
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.6 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Rents leads the difference, with Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 9.6 points higher than Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
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 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 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin corresponds to $101,647 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +4.4 RPP
Services
Diff +6.2 RPP
Rents
Diff +9.6 RPP
| Category | Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.0 | 98.6 | +1.6 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 100.6 | +4.4 |
| Services | 89.0 | 95.3 | +6.2 |
| Rents | 94.9 | 104.5 | +9.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 97.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 96.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 89.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin 94.9
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.6 to 1.6 RPP points. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 5.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (0.9 to 4.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 95.8 | 99.4 | 3.6 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 98.0 | 100.0 | 2.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2016 | 96.8 | 102.4 | 5.6 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 94.9 | 100.0 | 5.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 97.0 | 98.6 | 1.6 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 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 Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,823 | +$823 |
| $75,000 | $76,235 | +$1,235 |
| $100,000 | $101,647 | +$1,647 |
| $150,000 | $152,470 | +$2,470 |
$ in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.0 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 1.6% more expensive than Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 97.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin?
A $100,000 salary in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin has the same purchasing power as $101,647 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin are indexed at 94.9 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.