Overall
Diff +1.4 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 1.4% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
1.4% more expensive
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL is 1.4% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.0 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $101,395 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 100.0 (Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $101,395 purchasing power in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
- Services drives the gap (-7.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:FL 98.6→100.0
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE TX × FL
- 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
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
100.0
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 7.2 points lower. But services 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: Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 $101,395 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -4.4 RPP
Services
Diff -7.2 RPP
Rents
Diff +7.2 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 100.0 | +1.4 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 96.2 | -4.4 |
| Services | 95.3 | 88.1 | -7.2 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 111.7 | +7.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 100.0
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 96.2
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 88.1
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 111.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.5 to 1.4 RPP points. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 6.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.8 to 4.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 99.9 | 0.5 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 98.0 | 2.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 98.8 | 3.5 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 96.8 | 3.2 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 100.0 | 1.4 points Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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 Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,698 | +$698 |
| $75,000 | $76,046 | +$1,046 |
| $100,000 | $101,395 | +$1,395 |
| $150,000 | $152,093 | +$2,093 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 100.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is 1.4% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 100.0 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $101,395 in Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville is at 111.7 (national average = 100). Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville 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.