Overall
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
Diff -2.2 RPP
Salt Lake City-Murray vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.2% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray.
2.2% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 2.2% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray buys about the same as $97,780 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Salt Lake City-Murray ≈ $97,780 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Rents drives the gap (-18.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair UT:TX 100.9→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-PAR
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE UT × TX
- 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 | Salt Lake City-Murray | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.6 | -2.2 |
| Goods | 96.4 | 100.6 | +4.2 |
| Services | 79.0 | 95.3 | +16.3 |
| Rents | 123.3 | 104.5 | -18.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
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 18.8 points lower. But services and 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 2.2% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT, 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 Salt Lake City-Murray corresponds to $97,780 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands.
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Salt Lake City-Murray would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Salt Lake City-Murray | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,890 | $-1,110 |
| $75,000 | $73,335 | $-1,665 |
| $100,000 | $97,780 | $-2,220 |
| $150,000 | $146,670 | $-3,330 |
$ in Salt Lake City-Murray = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Salt Lake City-Murray and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 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 | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.5 | 99.4 | 1.0 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2012 | 102.2 | 100.0 | 2.1 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 98.3 | 102.4 | 4.1 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 97.3 | 100.0 | 2.7 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.6 | 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 2.2% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Salt Lake City-Murray?
A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray has the same purchasing power as $97,780 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Salt Lake City-Murray and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Salt Lake City-Murray are indexed at 123.3 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (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.