Cost of Living in Dallas, TX

Population & Growth of Dallas, TX

Dallas is home to roughly 1,326,087 people as of 2024, making it the third most populous city in Texas. Its population has grown 1.7% over the past five years.

Many Dallas residents rent, and rentals often mean limited space at home. Renting a storage unit is an affordable way to free up room, with a 5x10 unit costing about $60 per month on average. If you're planning a move, Extra Space Storage has facilities across Lake Highlands, Lakewood, Winnetka Heights, Uptown, and other Dallas neighborhoods. Find a storage unit in Dallas today!

Cost of Living in Dallas, TX by Household Size

A single adult in Dallas needs about $41,399 per year to cover essentials. A family of four should budget closer to $96,225 annually for the same categories at household scale—roughly 132.4% more than a single person needs, driven mainly by utilities and childcare costs.

What Salary Do You Need to Live in Dallas, TX

Based on U.S. median household income adjusted for Dallas's cost of living in 2026, you'd need to earn about $80,625 per year to match the standard of living of a typical American household, which is 1.2% below the national median. For essentials only, MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the floor at $41,399 for a single adult covering housing, groceries, transportation, and healthcare.

• Is $45,000 a good salary in Dallas? It sits about 44.2% below the adjusted benchmark, but will likely cover essentials for a single adult, with little room for savings.

• Is $90,000 enough to live in Dallas? Yes. It's about 11.6% above the adjusted benchmark, enough to cover typical Dallas costs comfortably with some room to save.

For context, Dallas's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the same as the state and federal rate. The city's median household income is $74,323, about 7.8% below the benchmark.

Taxes in Dallas, TX

Texas has no state income tax, and Dallas has no local income tax, so residents only pay federal income tax on their earnings. That can help a salary stretch further than it would in a high-tax state like California. But Texas makes up the difference elsewhere: the combined sales tax rate in Dallas is 8.25%, and property taxes are among the highest in the country, which renters often feel indirectly through rent.

How Does Dallas, TX Compare to the Rest of Texas?

As of 2026, Dallas's cost of living is 7.3% higher than the Texas state average, but still slightly below the national average. That's because Texas overall is more affordable than the country as a whole, with lower costs in many smaller cities and rural areas pulling the state average down.

Cost of Living in Dallas, TX Changes Over Time

Over the past five years, the cost of living in Dallas has stayed close to the national average, rising roughly in step with the rest of the country. Home prices drove much of the increase: median home sale prices rose about 21.5% between 2021 and 2026, while apartment rents were nearly flat, up only 0.7% over the same period. Nationwide inflation also pushed up the cost of everyday essentials like groceries, utilities, and healthcare.

Compare Dallas Cost of Living to Other Nearby Cities

How does Dallas compare to other cities nearby? Weatherford's cost of living is 11.2% lower than Dallas, with the biggest gap in housing. See the full city-by-city comparisons below.

• Cost of Living in McKinney, TX—1.6% lower than Dallas

• Cost of Living in Fort Worth, TX—4.4% lower than Dallas

• Cost of Living in Denton, TX—3.8% lower than Dallas

• Cost of Living in Weatherford, TX—11.2% lower than Dallas

• Cost of Living Index—C2ER: Our cost of living calculator is powered by data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), a trusted nonprofit organization that collects and compares prices across hundreds of U.S. cities. The C2ER Cost of Living Index measures everyday expenses like housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, healthcare, and other common goods and services, so you can see how costs stack up in different places. Each city's score is benchmarked against a national average of 100, which makes comparisons easy. For example, a score of 110 would indicate costs about 10% higher than the national average. We update our calculator twice a year to reflect the latest C2ER data. While these numbers represent citywide averages, it's important to keep in mind that your actual expenses may vary depending on your lifestyle and the neighborhood you choose. The category comparisons and dynamic figures throughout this page pull directly and automatically from this C2ER dataset via our CMS integration, so they stay current without manual updates each refresh cycle.

• Salary Benchmarks—Census/ACS and MIT Living Wage Calculator This page uses two distinct salary benchmarks, kept separate because they answer different questions. The "salary needed to live" figure is a cost-of-living-adjusted equivalence: U.S. median household income (Census/ACS) multiplied by the city's overall C2ER index, divided by 100—representing what a typical American household would need to earn locally to match the purchasing power they'd have nationally. The essentials-only figure referenced alongside it, and reused in the household-size breakdown, comes from MIT's Living Wage Calculator, using the after-tax, single-adult, no-children estimate as the baseline. The family-of-four figure in the household-size section uses MIT's "2 adults, both working, 2 children" scenario for consistency across cities. These figures are checked and refreshed manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Taxes—State and Local Tax Authority Sites: State income tax status, combined sales tax rate, and local income tax rate (where applicable) are researched and verified manually against each state's Department of Revenue or equivalent tax authority site as part of each city page's update.

• Cost of Living Over Time—Historical C2ER Data: Year-over-year cost-of-living trend figures are calculated in-house by comparing the city's current C2ER Cost of Living Index score against its own past C2ER reports, checked and calculated manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Population and Income Context—Census/ACS: Population figures, growth rates, and median household income come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, checked manually at each refresh.

• Neighborhood-Level Pricing—AreaVibes: Where a page identifies a specific cheaper neighborhood or suburb, median rent and home price comparisons are sourced from AreaVibes listing data, checked manually at each refresh. 

• Update Cadence: C2ER data refreshes automatically twice a year via our CMS integration. All other figures on this page—salary benchmarks, tax rates, CPI trends, Census data, and neighborhood pricing—are manually reviewed and updated as part of each city page's content refresh cycle.