Overall
Diff +4.5 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
4.5% more expensive
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX is 4.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.1 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $104,523 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 103.1 (Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $104,523 purchasing power in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
- Rents drives the gap (+13.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:TX 98.6→103.1
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 +2.2 RPP
Services
Diff -4.6 RPP
Rents
Diff +13.4 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 103.1 | +4.5 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 102.8 | +2.2 |
| Services | 95.3 | 90.7 | -4.6 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 117.9 | +13.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 103.1
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 102.8
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 90.7
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 117.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 13.4 points higher. 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 is 4.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands corresponds to $104,523 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
103.1
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,262 | +$2,262 |
| $75,000 | $78,392 | +$3,392 |
| $100,000 | $104,523 | +$4,523 |
| $150,000 | $156,785 | +$6,785 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 103.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington 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 | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 101.4 | 1.9 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 100.8 | 0.7 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 98.0 | 4.3 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 104.5 | 4.6 points Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 103.1 | 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 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 4.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 103.1 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $104,523 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is at 117.9 (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.