Overall
Diff -6.2 RPP
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 5.9% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington.
5.9% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 5.9% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 104.8). A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington buys about the same as $94,092 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington ≈ $94,092 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Rents drives the gap (-7.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:TX 104.8→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MN × TX
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -2.4 RPP
Services
Diff +1.8 RPP
Rents
Diff -7.3 RPP
| Category | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104.8 | 98.6 | -6.2 |
| Goods | 103.1 | 100.6 | -2.4 |
| Services | 93.5 | 95.3 | +1.8 |
| Rents | 111.8 | 104.5 | -7.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rents creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 7.3 points lower. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 5.9% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington corresponds to $94,092 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,046 | $-2,954 |
| $75,000 | $70,569 | $-4,431 |
| $100,000 | $94,092 | $-5,908 |
| $150,000 | $141,138 | $-8,862 |
$ in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (104.8 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 3.5 to 6.2 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.9 points between the first and latest shared releases (14.7 to 1.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 99.4 | 3.5 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2012 | 101.2 | 100.0 | 1.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 102.3 | 102.4 | 0.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 102.4 | 100.0 | 2.4 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 104.8 | 98.6 | 6.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 5.9% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 104.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington has the same purchasing power as $94,092 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington are indexed at 111.8 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.