Overall
- Stockton-Lodi
- 105.1
Diff -6.5 RPP
Stockton-Lodi vs Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 6.1% less expensive than Stockton-Lodi.
6.1% less expensive
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX is 6.1% less expensive than Stockton-Lodi, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.6 vs 105.1). A $100,000 salary in Stockton-Lodi buys about the same as $93,853 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 105.1 (Stockton-Lodi) vs 98.6 (Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands)
- $100k in Stockton-Lodi ≈ $93,853 purchasing power in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
- Services drives the gap (-63.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:TX 105.1→98.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × TX
- 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 is 6.1% less expensive than Stockton-Lodi, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Stockton-Lodi 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 Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 63.0 points lower than Stockton-Lodi. 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 Stockton-Lodi to $93,853 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Stockton-Lodi and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 0.8 to 6.5 RPP points. Stockton-Lodi remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 64.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.8 to 63.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Stockton-Lodi RPP | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 100.2 | 99.4 | 0.8 points Stockton-Lodi higher |
| 2012 | 103.8 | 100.0 | 3.8 points Stockton-Lodi higher |
| 2016 | 99.9 | 102.4 | 2.5 points Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands higher |
| 2020 | 105.3 | 100.0 | 5.3 points Stockton-Lodi higher |
| 2024 | 105.1 | 98.6 | 6.5 points Stockton-Lodi 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
- Stockton-Lodi
- 105.2
Diff -4.5 RPP
Services
- Stockton-Lodi
- 158.2
Diff -63.0 RPP
Rents
- Stockton-Lodi
- 115.6
Diff -11.1 RPP
| Category | Stockton-Lodi | Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 105.1 | 98.6 | -6.5 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 100.6 | -4.5 |
| Services | 158.2 | 95.3 | -63.0 |
| Rents | 115.6 | 104.5 | -11.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Stockton-Lodi 105.1
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 98.6
Goods
Stockton-Lodi 105.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 100.6
Services
Stockton-Lodi 158.2
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 95.3
Rents
Stockton-Lodi 115.6
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands 104.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Stockton-Lodi would need to be in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands for the same purchasing power:
| In Stockton-Lodi | In Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,926 | $-3,074 |
| $75,000 | $70,390 | $-4,610 |
| $100,000 | $93,853 | $-6,147 |
| $150,000 | $140,779 | $-9,221 |
$ in Stockton-Lodi = in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (105.1 → 98.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Stockton-Lodi
105.1
Cost Index
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands
98.6
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands more expensive than Stockton-Lodi?
Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is 6.1% less expensive than Stockton-Lodi. The overall cost index is 98.6 vs 105.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands equals $100K in Stockton-Lodi?
A $100,000 salary in Stockton-Lodi has the same purchasing power as $93,853 in Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Stockton-Lodi and Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands?
Rents in Stockton-Lodi are indexed at 115.6 while Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands is at 104.5 (national average = 100). Stockton-Lodi 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.