Overall
Diff +6.2 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
6.3% more expensive
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 104.8 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $106,279 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $106,279 purchasing power in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
- Rents drives the gap (+7.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:MN 98.6→104.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE TX × MN
- 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 +2.4 RPP
Services
Diff -1.8 RPP
Rents
Diff +7.3 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 104.8 | +6.2 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 103.1 | +2.4 |
| Services | 95.3 | 93.5 | -1.8 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 111.8 | +7.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 7.3 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 $106,279 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,140 | +$3,140 |
| $75,000 | $79,709 | +$4,709 |
| $100,000 | $106,279 | +$6,279 |
| $150,000 | $159,419 | +$9,419 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 104.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 3.5 to 6.2 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (14.7 to 1.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 102.9 | 3.5 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 101.2 | 1.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 102.3 | 0.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 102.4 | 2.4 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 104.8 | 6.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 104.8 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $106,279 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is at 111.8 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.