Overall
- Urban Honolulu
- 111.0
Diff +12.3 RPP
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands vs Urban Honolulu
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Urban Honolulu is 12.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
12.5% more expensive
Urban Honolulu, HI is 12.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 111.0 vs 98.6). A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands buys about the same as $112,503 in Urban Honolulu; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands) vs 111.0 (Urban Honolulu)
- $100k in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ≈ $112,503 purchasing power in Urban Honolulu
- Services drives the gap (+92.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair TX:HI 98.6→111.0
TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
- CROSS-STATE TX × HI
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX and Urban Honolulu, HI sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 12.3 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Urban Honolulu 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.
Services leads the difference, with Urban Honolulu 92.0 points higher than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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 $112,503 in Urban Honolulu, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Urban Honolulu share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 12.4 to 12.3 RPP points. Urban Honolulu remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 72.6 points between the first and latest shared releases (164.6 to 92.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Urban Honolulu RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 99.4 | 111.9 | 12.4 points Urban Honolulu higher |
| 2012 | 100.0 | 112.4 | 12.3 points Urban Honolulu higher |
| 2016 | 102.4 | 113.4 | 11.0 points Urban Honolulu higher |
| 2020 | 100.0 | 115.7 | 15.7 points Urban Honolulu higher |
| 2024 | 98.6 | 111.0 | 12.3 points Urban Honolulu 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Urban Honolulu
- 111.6
Diff +10.9 RPP
Services
- Urban Honolulu
- 187.3
Diff +92.0 RPP
Rents
- Urban Honolulu
- 135.5
Diff +31.0 RPP
| Category | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Urban Honolulu | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.6 | 111.0 | +12.3 |
| Goods | 100.6 | 111.6 | +10.9 |
| Services | 95.3 | 187.3 | +92.0 |
| Rents | 104.5 | 135.5 | +31.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Urban Honolulu 111.0
Goods
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Urban Honolulu 111.6
Services
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Urban Honolulu 187.3
Rents
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Urban Honolulu 135.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands would need to be in Urban Honolulu for the same purchasing power:
| In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | In Urban Honolulu | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $56,252 | +$6,252 |
| $75,000 | $84,378 | +$9,378 |
| $100,000 | $112,503 | +$12,503 |
| $150,000 | $168,755 | +$18,755 |
$ in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands = in Urban Honolulu
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.6 → 111.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Urban Honolulu
111.0
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Urban Honolulu more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Urban Honolulu is 12.5% more expensive than Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. The overall cost index is 111.0 vs 98.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Urban Honolulu equals $100K in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
A $100,000 salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands has the same purchasing power as $112,503 in Urban Honolulu. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands and Urban Honolulu?
Rents in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands are indexed at 104.5 while Urban Honolulu is at 135.5 (national average = 100). Urban Honolulu 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.