A $75,000 salary in Los Angeles requires about $47,892 in Dallas to keep your real spending power flat. Housing leads the gap at -46.0% versus a composite -36.1% on the C2ER ACCRA cost-of-living index. Tax sits separately — see the state-tax sidebar.
Salary-equivalence math is the same across every cost-of-living comparison: scale by index ratio. For Los Angeles (166) to Dallas (106) that ratio is 0.639. The table below applies it to the three anchor incomes most relocators use as decision points.
| Los Angeles salary | Equivalent in Dallas | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $31,928 | -$18,072 |
| $75,000 | $47,892 | -$27,108 |
| $150,000 | $95,783 | -$54,217 |
Five sub-indexes feed the composite cost-of-living number. Housing dominates, but the other four — groceries, transport, healthcare, utilities — each carry weight in any real household budget. Here is how Los Angeles and Dallas stack up category by category against the national-average baseline of 100.
| Category | Los Angeles | Dallas | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 215 | 116 | -46.0% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 110 | 96 | -12.7% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 132 | 99 | -25.0% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 103 | 99 | -3.9% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 121 | 102 | -15.7% |
| Composite | 166 | 106 | -36.1% |
Moving from Los Angeles, CA to Dallas, TX is, on the headline number, a clear cost-of-living downshift: Dallas runs roughly 36% cheaper than Los Angeles on the composite index. The biggest driver is housing, where Dallas sits about 46% below Los Angeles on the C2ER ACCRA housing sub-index. A $75,000 salary in Los Angeles maps to roughly $47,892 of equivalent purchasing power in Dallas, which is the relevant number when you negotiate a relocation offer or evaluate a job posting from a Dallas-based employer.
The temptation is to read "cheaper" and assume the move is automatically a win, but the real comparison happens at the line-item level. Housing is the swing factor, and if your current Los Angeles budget is heavily weighted toward rent or mortgage — say 35% or more of gross — you capture most of the savings. If you live below your housing means in Los Angeles already, the move buys less than the index suggests. Run your actual rent, your actual grocery basket, and your actual commute through the comparison rather than trusting a single composite number.
Income tax is a separate axis from the cost-of-living index, and California and Texas can disagree on it sharply. 9.30% versus 0.00% on the top-marginal or flat state rate translates to $6,975 versus $0 on a $75,000 salary, a $6,975 delta that stacks with the consumer-price story.
Run your actual salary and filing status through the take-home pay calculator for a precise after-tax number. The federal layer is the same in either metro; only the state piece shifts. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
The data says no. Composite indexes: Los Angeles 166, Dallas 106. Dallas is roughly 36% less expensive overall, with the housing sub-index doing most of the work and other categories contributing smaller deltas.
To maintain the same standard of living you have in Los Angeles, CA on $75,000, you would need to earn approximately $47,892 in Dallas, TX. The formula is straightforward: multiply your current salary by the ratio of the two cost-of-living indexes (106 ÷ 166 = 0.64). The result covers consumer prices but not state income tax differences — see the state-tax sidebar for that adjustment.
Housing is the largest line item in any cost-of-living comparison and the one with the most metro-to-metro variance. Los Angeles's housing sub-index sits at 215; Dallas's is 116. That gap reflects rent and home-price differences captured in the C2ER ACCRA quarterly survey. Groceries (Los Angeles 110 vs Dallas 96), transportation (132 vs 99), and utilities (121 vs 102) all contribute, but housing is the dominant factor.
They are tracked separately. The cost-of-living composite measures consumer prices; state income tax is a different axis. California and Texas can disagree on tax by several thousand dollars per year at typical salaries, and that delta stacks with — not into — the consumer-price gap above.