Overall
Diff -3.9 RPP
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 3.8% less expensive than Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington.
3.8% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 3.8% less expensive than Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 102.6). A $100,000 salary in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington buys about the same as $96,173 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 102.6 (Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington ≈ $96,173 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (-19.1 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair PA:TX 102.6→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE PA × 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 +3.8 RPP
Services
Diff -19.1 RPP
Rents
Diff -8.6 RPP
| Category | Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 102.6 | 98.6 | -3.9 |
| Goods | 96.8 | 100.6 | +3.8 |
| Services | 114.4 | 95.3 | -19.1 |
| Rents | 113.1 | 104.5 | -8.6 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 102.6
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 96.8
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 114.4
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 113.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 19.1 points lower. But goods 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 3.8% less expensive than Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.9-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington to $96,173 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington
102.6
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,086 | $-1,914 |
| $75,000 | $72,130 | $-2,870 |
| $100,000 | $96,173 | $-3,827 |
| $150,000 | $144,259 | $-5,741 |
$ in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (102.6 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 3.8% less expensive than Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 102.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington?
A $100,000 salary in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington has the same purchasing power as $96,173 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington are indexed at 113.1 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington 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.