Overall
- Detroit-Warren-Dearborn
- 100.3
Diff -1.7 RPP
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 1.7% less expensive than Detroit-Warren-Dearborn.
1.7% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 1.7% less expensive than Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 100.3). A $100,000 salary in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn buys about the same as $98,336 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.3 (Detroit-Warren-Dearborn) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn ≈ $98,336 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (-11.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MI:TX 100.3→98.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MI × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- 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.
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn
100.3
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.7 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 11.7 points lower. But rents and goods 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.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 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.
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 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn to $98,336 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +1.8 RPP
Services
- Detroit-Warren-Dearborn
- 107.0
Diff -11.7 RPP
Rents
Diff +9.8 RPP
| Category | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.3 | 98.6 | -1.7 |
| Goods | 98.8 | 100.6 | +1.8 |
| Services | 107.0 | 95.3 | -11.7 |
| Rents | 94.7 | 104.5 | +9.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 100.3
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 98.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 107.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 94.7
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 1.1 to 1.7 RPP points. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 13.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (3.4 to 9.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Detroit-Warren-Dearborn RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 100.6 | 99.4 | 1.1 points Detroit-Warren-Dearborn higher |
| 2012 | 97.8 | 100.0 | 2.2 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2016 | 96.3 | 102.4 | 6.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 98.3 | 100.0 | 1.6 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 100.3 | 98.6 | 1.7 points Detroit-Warren-Dearborn 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 Detroit-Warren-Dearborn would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Detroit-Warren-Dearborn | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,168 | $-832 |
| $75,000 | $73,752 | $-1,248 |
| $100,000 | $98,336 | $-1,664 |
| $150,000 | $147,504 | $-2,496 |
$ in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.3 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Detroit-Warren-Dearborn?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 1.7% less expensive than Detroit-Warren-Dearborn. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 100.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn?
A $100,000 salary in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn has the same purchasing power as $98,336 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Detroit-Warren-Dearborn and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn are indexed at 94.7 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.