Overall
Diff +2.3 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is 2.3% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
2.3% more expensive
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 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 $102,292 in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 100.9 (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $102,292 purchasing power in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
- Rents drives the gap (+21.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:FL 98.6→100.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -5.2 RPP
Services
Diff -6.8 RPP
Rents
Diff +21.3 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 100.9 | +2.3 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 95.5 | -5.2 |
| Services | 95.3 | 88.5 | -6.8 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 125.8 | +21.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 100.9
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 95.5
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 88.5
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 125.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is 21.3 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.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL 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 2.3-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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 $102,292 in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
100.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $51,146 | +$1,146 |
| $75,000 | $76,719 | +$1,719 |
| $100,000 | $102,292 | +$2,292 |
| $150,000 | $153,439 | +$3,439 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.8 to 2.3 RPP points. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (6.6 to 5.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 103.3 | 3.8 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 100.3 | 0.2 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 97.1 | 5.3 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 101.3 | 1.4 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 100.9 | 2.3 points Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $102,292 in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater is at 125.8 (national average = 100). Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater 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.