Texas Cost of Living Rankings - 2014
Which cities in Texas are best for your budget and lifestyle—both personally and professionally? By carefully analyzing nine unique sets of demographics and realistic living situations, Fixr calculates affordability hyperlocally to give you the most applicable results for your bottom line. Our personalized rankings can help you quickly project your annual income and cost of living in 32 cities across Texas. Plus, our interactive maps let you easily explore the affordability of specific neighborhoods in each city. To get started, simply customize the following options according to your preferences.
Cost of Living ranking
Husband is an interpreter, age 26; and his wife is a personal care aide, aged 27. They have one child who is 2, and a Low-Cost Food Plan. They are seeking 1,750 square. feet with two or three bedrooms.
- #1 El Paso 90% - 100%
- #2 Round Rock 90% - 100%
- #3 Pasadena 90% - 100%
- #4 Killeen 90% - 100%
- #5 Wichita Falls 90% - 100%
- #6 Abilene 90% - 100%
- #7 Houston 80% - 90%
- #8 Austin 80% - 90%
- #9 San Antonio 80% - 90%
- #10 Beaumont 80% - 90%
- #11 Fort Worth 70% - 80%
- #12 Mesquite 70% - 80%
- #13 Arlington 60% - 70%
- #14 Grand Prairie 50% - 60%
- #15 McAllen 50% - 60%
- #16 Garland 50% - 60%
- #17 Laredo 40% - 50%
- #18 Dallas 40% - 50%
- #19 Brownsville 30% - 40%
- #20 McKinney 30% - 40%
- #21 Frisco 20% - 30%
- #22 Irving 20% - 30%
- #23 Denton 20% - 30%
- #24 Lubbock 10% - 20%
- #25 Corpus Christi 10% - 20%
- #26 Richardson 10% - 20%
- #27 Plano 10% - 20%
- #28 Midland 10% - 20%
- #29 Carrollton 0% - 10%
- #30 Amarillo 0% - 10%
- #31 Waco 0% - 10%
- #32 Odessa 0% - 10%
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Young Family Affordability Rankings
Supported by emerging careers, our young family is headed by an interpreter and a personal care aide—a 26-year-old husband and his 27-year-old wife, respectively. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that over the next years, personal care aides and interpreters will remain two of the nation's fastest-growing careers, which suit the young parents who run our household. The family includes a 2-year-old child and maintains a Low-Cost Food Plan. In order to rank the cities according to annual affordability, we consider our young family's preferred housing characteristics: a house or an apartment that's 1,750 square feet, including two (or three) bedrooms, is a desirable home for our young family. Results are applicable to other households whose annual incomes fit within the range of earnings for the demographic.
We rank each city by calculating the percentage of affordable housing preferred by our young family. Cities are grouped into affordability brackets, based on the demographic's annual household income and realistic cost of living, and then sorted by discretionary income, which is the yearly amount remaining from earnings after covered expenses. Annual household income draws on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; and the realistic cost of living derives from our formula of seven factors—housing, food, utilities, child care, taxes, health care and transportation. Our full methodology is available here.
Analysis of the Rankings for All Cities in Texas
For our young family, housing affordability varies significantly between 32 cities in Texas with populations of 100,000 or more. Our calculations show that the demographic earns an annual household income from $50,680 (Waco) to $81,210 (Austin), generates a cost of living of between $54,937 (Waco) and $75,644 (Austin), and ends with a discretionary income of up to $12,429 (El Paso) or an annual loss of as much as $10,663 (Midland).
Our young family's annual expenses exceed earnings in 19 midsize cities, where affordability is less than 60%. Austin, one of 10 large cities, offers the highest income, but El Paso, where the affordability is more than 90%, provides the largest discretionary income, which derives from annual earnings after covered expenses. As a result, El Paso tops our rankings, and has an edge over Round Rock, Pasadena, Killeen, Wichita Falls and Abilene, all of which are midsize cities with housing affordability of more than 90%. The costliest cities—Odessa, Amarillo, Waco and Carrollton—have less than 10% of affordable housing units.
You can explore which neighborhoods are affordable and desirable to our target demographic by clicking on the names of each city above.
| City | Income | Expenses | Money left | % affordable houses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 El Paso | $78,823 | $66,394 | $12,429 | 90% - 100% |
| #2 Round Rock | $81,062 | $71,181 | $9,882 | 90% - 100% |
| #3 Pasadena | $74,146 | $66,813 | $7,334 | 90% - 100% |
| #4 Killeen | $63,003 | $59,033 | $3,970 | 90% - 100% |
| #5 Wichita Falls | $63,240 | $59,417 | $3,824 | 90% - 100% |
| #6 Abilene | $64,544 | $60,832 | $3,712 | 90% - 100% |
| #7 Houston | $74,576 | $68,204 | $6,373 | 80% - 90% |
| #8 Austin | $81,210 | $75,644 | $5,566 | 80% - 90% |
| #9 San Antonio | $69,924 | $67,118 | $2,806 | 80% - 90% |
| #10 Beaumont | $64,370 | $61,649 | $2,722 | 80% - 90% |
| #11 Fort Worth | $62,465 | $61,496 | $970 | 70% - 80% |
| #12 Mesquite | $62,440 | $61,508 | $933 | 70% - 80% |
| #13 Arlington | $62,454 | $61,777 | $678 | 60% - 70% |
| #14 Grand Prairie | $62,481 | $62,515 | - $34 | 50% - 60% |
| #15 McAllen | $59,060 | $59,379 | - $318 | 50% - 60% |
| #16 Garland | $62,440 | $62,798 | - $357 | 50% - 60% |
| #17 Laredo | $63,681 | $63,729 | - $48 | 40% - 50% |
| #18 Dallas | $62,451 | $64,502 | - $2,051 | 40% - 50% |
| #19 Brownsville | $55,308 | $56,502 | - $1,194 | 30% - 40% |
| #20 McKinney | $62,440 | $64,086 | - $1,645 | 30% - 40% |
| #21 Frisco | $62,440 | $64,166 | - $1,725 | 20% - 30% |
| #22 Irving | $62,647 | $64,866 | - $2,219 | 20% - 30% |
| #23 Denton | $62,440 | $65,182 | - $2,741 | 20% - 30% |
| #24 Lubbock | $52,430 | $55,207 | - $2,776 | 10% - 20% |
| #25 Corpus Christi | $62,716 | $65,851 | - $3,135 | 10% - 20% |
| #26 Richardson | $62,440 | $65,987 | - $3,546 | 10% - 20% |
| #27 Plano | $62,440 | $66,290 | - $3,849 | 10% - 20% |
| #28 Midland | $64,830 | $75,494 | - $10,663 | 10% - 20% |
| #29 Carrollton | $62,440 | $65,384 | - $2,944 | 0% - 10% |
| #30 Amarillo | $52,297 | $56,271 | - $3,973 | 0% - 10% |
| #31 Waco | $50,680 | $54,937 | - $4,256 | 0% - 10% |
| #32 Odessa | $63,655 | $73,800 | - $10,145 | 0% - 10% |