Overall
Diff -5.0 RPP
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vs Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 4.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
4.9% less expensive
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is 4.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.1 vs 103.1). A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington buys about the same as $95,127 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) vs 98.1 (Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos)
- $100k in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ≈ $95,127 purchasing power in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
- Goods drives the gap (-9.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:TX 103.1→98.1
TIER-NEAR · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- SAME-STATE Same state · 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
Diff -9.1 RPP
Services
Diff -8.7 RPP
Rents
Diff +2.5 RPP
| Category | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.1 | 98.1 | -5.0 |
| Goods | 102.8 | 93.8 | -9.1 |
| Services | 90.7 | 82.0 | -8.7 |
| Rents | 117.9 | 120.4 | +2.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 98.1
Goods
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 93.8
Services
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 82.0
Rents
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 120.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 9.1 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX is 4.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, 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: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is above 100 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $95,127 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, then replace the national basket with your own.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
98.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington would need to be in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos for the same purchasing power:
| In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | In Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,563 | $-2,437 |
| $75,000 | $71,345 | $-3,655 |
| $100,000 | $95,127 | $-4,873 |
| $150,000 | $142,690 | $-7,310 |
$ in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington = in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.1 → 98.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.8 to 5.0 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 6.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.5 to 9.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 101.4 | 99.6 | 1.8 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2012 | 100.8 | 100.9 | 0.2 points Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos higher |
| 2016 | 98.0 | 102.6 | 4.5 points Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos higher |
| 2020 | 104.5 | 101.1 | 3.4 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 103.1 | 98.1 | 5.0 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is 4.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The overall cost index is 98.1 vs 103.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos equals $100K in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has the same purchasing power as $95,127 in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos?
Rents in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington are indexed at 117.9 while Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos is at 120.4 (national average = 100). Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 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.