Cost of Living in Houston, TX

Population & Growth of Houston, TX

Houston is home to roughly 2,397,315 people as of 2025, making it the most populous city in Texas and one of the fastest-growing metros in the state, with its population up 4.2% over the past five years. That growth has put pressure on housing, and as living space gets pricier, many residents are looking for ways to make the space they have go further.

Even with larger homes in the suburbs, growing families and renters can run out of space quickly. A storage unit is an affordable fix, with a 5x10 unit averaging $46 per month. Whether you're moving to Houston or across town, Extra Space Storage has facilities in Kingwood, Midtown, Spring Valley Village, and more. Find a storage unit in Houston today!

Cost of Living in Houston, TX by Household Size

A single adult in Houston needs about $39,568 per year to cover essentials, according to MIT's Living Wage Calculator. A family of four with two working adults and two children should budget closer to $93,783 annually, about 137% more, driven mainly by child care, larger housing costs, and higher grocery spending.

What Salary Do You Need to Live in Houston, TX

Based on U.S. median household income adjusted for Houston's cost of living in 2026, you'd need to earn about $76,300 per year to match the standard of living of a typical American household. That's roughly 6.5% below the national median. For essentials only, MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the floor for a single adult at $39,568 per year before taxes, covering housing, food, transportation, health care, and other basic costs.

• Is $50,000 a good salary in Houston? For a single adult, it covers typical essentials, but it falls about 34% below the $76,300 benchmark, with housing and transportation accounting for most of the gap.

• Is $90,000 enough? For a single person, yes. $90,000 is about 18% above the benchmark, which leaves meaningful room for savings.

For context, Houston's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, the same as both the Texas and federal minimums. The city's median household income is $64,361, about 16% below the benchmark above.

Taxes in Houston, TX

Texas has no state income tax, so more of each paycheck stays with you. A $90,000 salary in Houston can go further than the same salary in a state like Louisiana, which taxes income. The tradeoff is property tax: Texas rates are among the higher ones in the country, which hits homeowners directly and renters indirectly through rent. Houston's combined sales tax rate is 8.25%, made up of the 6.25% state rate and 2% in local taxes.

How Does Houston Compare to the Rest of Texas?

As of 2026, Houston’s cost of living is 1.5% higher than the Texas state average—a smaller gap than the 6.5% difference from the national average, showing how comparable Houston is relative to the rest of the state.

Cost of Living in Houston, TX Changes Over Time

Cost of living in Houston has stayed below the national average over the past five years and is currently about 7% lower. Housing is the main exception. From 2021 to 2026, average apartment rent rose 10.8%, and median home prices climbed 11.6%. Population growth, higher mortgage rates, and rising homeowners insurance premiums have all contributed to that pressure. Costs in other categories have stayed comparatively flat, rising only modestly with national inflation.

Compare Houston Cost of Living to Other Nearby Cities

How does Houston compare to other cities nearby? Lufkin's cost of living is 3% higher than Houston’s, with the biggest gap in healthcare. See the full city-by-city comparisons below.

• Cost of Living in Conroe, TX—0.1% lower than Houston

• Cost of Living in Beaumont, TX—2.9% lower than Houston

• Cost of Living in Lufkin, TX—2.4% higher than Houston

• Cost of Living in Lake Charles, LA—7.3% lower than Houston

• 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.