Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vs Cleveland

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Cleveland is 8.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.

8.9% less expensive

Cleveland, OH is 8.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 93.9 vs 103.1). A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington buys about the same as $91,108 in Cleveland; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) vs 93.9 (Cleveland)
  • $100k in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ≈ $91,108 purchasing power in Cleveland
  • Rents drives the gap (-38.4 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair TX:OH 103.1→93.9

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE TX × OH
  • 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

Visual Comparison

Overall
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cleveland
93.9
Goods
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
102.8
Cleveland
93.6
Services
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
90.7
Cleveland
96.0
Rents
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
117.9
Cleveland
79.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rents creates the largest separation: Cleveland is 38.4 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX and Cleveland, OH sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 9.2 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is above 100 while Cleveland 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 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington corresponds to $91,108 in Cleveland.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Cleveland
93.9
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington would need to be in Cleveland for the same purchasing power:

In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington In Cleveland Difference
$50,000 $45,554 $-4,446
$75,000 $68,331 $-6,669
$100,000 $91,108 $-8,892
$150,000 $136,662 $-13,338
$ in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington = in Cleveland

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.1 → 93.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cleveland more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?

Cleveland is 8.9% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The overall cost index is 93.9 vs 103.1 (national average = 100).

What salary in Cleveland equals $100K in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?

A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has the same purchasing power as $91,108 in Cleveland. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Cleveland?

Rents in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington are indexed at 117.9 while Cleveland is at 79.4 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.