Overall
Diff -4.5 RPP
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 4.3% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
4.3% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 4.3% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 103.1). A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington buys about the same as $95,673 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ≈ $95,673 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Rents drives the gap (-13.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:TX 103.1→98.6
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 -2.2 RPP
Services
Diff +4.6 RPP
Rents
Diff -13.4 RPP
| Category | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.1 | 98.6 | -4.5 |
| Goods | 102.8 | 100.6 | -2.2 |
| Services | 90.7 | 95.3 | +4.6 |
| Rents | 117.9 | 104.5 | -13.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 13.4 points lower. But services 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 4.3% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 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 $95,673 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,836 | $-2,164 |
| $75,000 | $71,755 | $-3,245 |
| $100,000 | $95,673 | $-4,327 |
| $150,000 | $143,509 | $-6,491 |
$ in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.1 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.9 to 4.5 RPP points. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (7.2 to 4.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 101.4 | 99.4 | 1.9 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2012 | 100.8 | 100.0 | 0.7 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2016 | 98.0 | 102.4 | 4.3 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 104.5 | 100.0 | 4.6 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 103.1 | 98.6 | 4.5 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 4.3% less expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 103.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has the same purchasing power as $95,673 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington are indexed at 117.9 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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.