Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington vs Stockton-Lodi

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Stockton-Lodi is 1.9% more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.

1.9% more expensive

Stockton-Lodi, CA is 1.9% more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 105.1 vs 103.1). A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington buys about the same as $101,939 in Stockton-Lodi; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) vs 105.1 (Stockton-Lodi)
  • $100k in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ≈ $101,939 purchasing power in Stockton-Lodi
  • Services drives the gap (+67.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair TX:CA 103.1→105.1

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE TX × CA
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-ABOVE Both above 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.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Stockton-Lodi
105.1
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX and Stockton-Lodi, CA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 2.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Stockton-Lodi is 67.5 points higher. But rents 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 exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.

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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington to $101,939 in Stockton-Lodi, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Stockton-Lodi
105.1
Goods
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
102.8
Stockton-Lodi
105.2
Services
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
90.7
Stockton-Lodi
158.2
Rents
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
117.9
Stockton-Lodi
115.6

Vertical line = national average (100)

How the Price Gap Changed

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington and Stockton-Lodi share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.2 to 2.0 RPP points. Stockton-Lodi remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 76.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.1 to 67.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP Stockton-Lodi RPP Relative Gap
2008 101.4 100.2 1.2 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher
2012 100.8 103.8 3.1 points Stockton-Lodi higher
2016 98.0 99.9 1.9 points Stockton-Lodi higher
2020 104.5 105.3 0.7 points Stockton-Lodi higher
2024 103.1 105.1 2.0 points Stockton-Lodi 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington would need to be in Stockton-Lodi for the same purchasing power:

In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington In Stockton-Lodi Difference
$50,000 $50,970 +$970
$75,000 $76,454 +$1,454
$100,000 $101,939 +$1,939
$150,000 $152,909 +$2,909
$ in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington = in Stockton-Lodi

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.1 → 105.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Stockton-Lodi more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?

Stockton-Lodi is 1.9% more expensive than Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. The overall cost index is 105.1 vs 103.1 (national average = 100).

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

A $100,000 salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington has the same purchasing power as $101,939 in Stockton-Lodi. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

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

Rents in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington are indexed at 117.9 while Stockton-Lodi is at 115.6 (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.