Overall
Diff +1.8 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Norwich-New London-Willimantic
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Norwich-New London-Willimantic is 1.8% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
1.8% more expensive
Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT is 1.8% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.4 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $101,841 in Norwich-New London-Willimantic; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 100.4 (Norwich-New London-Willimantic)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $101,841 purchasing power in Norwich-New London-Willimantic
- Services drives the gap (+53.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:CT 98.6→100.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE TX × CT
- 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.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Norwich-New London-Willimantic
100.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX and Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.8 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Norwich-New London-Willimantic is 53.3 points higher. 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: Norwich-New London-Willimantic 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands to $101,841 in Norwich-New London-Willimantic, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -3.3 RPP
Services
Diff +53.3 RPP
Rents
Diff -10.8 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Norwich-New London-Willimantic | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 100.4 | +1.8 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 97.3 | -3.3 |
| Services | 95.3 | 148.6 | +53.3 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 93.7 | -10.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Norwich-New London-Willimantic 100.4
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Norwich-New London-Willimantic 97.3
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Norwich-New London-Willimantic 148.6
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Norwich-New London-Willimantic 93.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Norwich-New London-Willimantic share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 4.2 to 1.8 RPP points. Norwich-New London-Willimantic remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 24.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (13.9 to 10.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Norwich-New London-Willimantic RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 103.7 | 4.2 points Norwich-New London-Willimantic higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 101.7 | 1.7 points Norwich-New London-Willimantic higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 102.6 | 0.3 points Norwich-New London-Willimantic higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 102.1 | 2.1 points Norwich-New London-Willimantic higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 100.4 | 1.8 points Norwich-New London-Willimantic 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Norwich-New London-Willimantic for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Norwich-New London-Willimantic | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,921 | +$921 |
| $75,000 | $76,381 | +$1,381 |
| $100,000 | $101,841 | +$1,841 |
| $150,000 | $152,762 | +$2,762 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Norwich-New London-Willimantic
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 100.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Norwich-New London-Willimantic more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Norwich-New London-Willimantic is 1.8% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 100.4 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Norwich-New London-Willimantic equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $101,841 in Norwich-New London-Willimantic. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Norwich-New London-Willimantic?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Norwich-New London-Willimantic is at 93.7 (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.