Overall
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
Diff +2.2 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Salt Lake City-Murray
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
2.3% more expensive
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.9 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $102,270 in Salt Lake City-Murray; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $102,270 purchasing power in Salt Lake City-Murray
- Rents drives the gap (+18.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:UT 98.6→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE TX × UT
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -4.2 RPP
Services
Diff -16.3 RPP
Rents
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
Diff +18.8 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 100.9 | +2.2 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 96.4 | -4.2 |
| Services | 95.3 | 79.0 | -16.3 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 123.3 | +18.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Salt Lake City-Murray is 18.8 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT is 2.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salt Lake City-Murray 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 $102,270 in Salt Lake City-Murray.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Salt Lake City-Murray for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Salt Lake City-Murray | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,135 | +$1,135 |
| $75,000 | $76,703 | +$1,703 |
| $100,000 | $102,270 | +$2,270 |
| $150,000 | $153,405 | +$3,405 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Salt Lake City-Murray
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 100.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Salt Lake City-Murray share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 1.0 to 2.2 RPP points. Salt Lake City-Murray remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 13.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (30.2 to 16.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 98.5 | 1.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 102.2 | 2.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 98.3 | 4.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 97.3 | 2.7 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 100.9 | 2.2 points Salt Lake City-Murray 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 Salt Lake City-Murray more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Salt Lake City-Murray is 2.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 100.9 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Salt Lake City-Murray equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $102,270 in Salt Lake City-Murray. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Salt Lake City-Murray?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Salt Lake City-Murray is at 123.3 (national average = 100). Salt Lake City-Murray 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.