New York to Austin on the C2ER ACCRA composite: -37.4% on the headline, -40.5% on housing alone. A $75,000 New York salary lines up with roughly $46,925 in Austin after the consumer-price adjustment. State tax stacks on top — sidebar below.
Multiply your New York salary by 0.626 (the index ratio 117/187) to get the Austin number that preserves your real-terms spending. The three anchor rows below — $50k, $75k, $150k — are the most common comparison points for relocation offers.
| New York salary | Equivalent in Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $31,283 | -$18,717 |
| $75,000 | $46,925 | -$28,075 |
| $150,000 | $93,850 | -$56,150 |
The C2ER ACCRA composite index aggregates five spending categories. Looking at them individually shows where the New York-to-Austin gap actually comes from — the headline number is an average that compresses larger category-level differences. National average for each sub-index is 100.
| Category | New York | Austin | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 232 | 138 | -40.5% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 117 | 95 | -18.8% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 134 | 102 | -23.9% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 107 | 98 | -8.4% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 165 | 104 | -37.0% |
| Composite | 187 | 117 | -37.4% |
For someone weighing a move from New York, NY to Austin, TX, the cost-of-living comparison is the cleanest part of the analysis. Austin runs about 37% under New York on the composite C2ER ACCRA index, and that translates directly into salary-equivalence numbers you can use to evaluate offers: $75,000 of New York purchasing power equals roughly $46,925 in Austin terms.
What the index does not capture: lifestyle adjustments, neighborhood-level price variance within each metro, and tax differences between the two states. New York and Texas can have meaningfully different state income tax burdens at the same salary level, and that gap is layered on top of the consumer-price gap rather than embedded in it. The sidebar on this page shows the state-tax delta at three salary anchors so you can stack the two effects and see the combined picture.
The cost-of-living index is a pre-tax measure. Add state tax to get the after-tax picture: New York at 6.85% versus Texas at 0.00%. The $75,000 anchor shows $5,138 owed in New York versus $0 in Texas, a $5,138 swing on top of the consumer-price gap.
Model the precise after-tax difference with the take-home pay calculator using your specific filing status and salary. Federal tax is identical regardless of which state you live in; only the state component moves. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
No — Austin comes in about 37% cheaper on the composite (117 vs 187 for New York). Housing carries most of the gap, with smaller contributions from grocery, transport, and utility sub-indexes.
To maintain the same standard of living you have in New York, NY on $75,000, you would need to earn approximately $46,925 in Austin, TX. The formula is straightforward: multiply your current salary by the ratio of the two cost-of-living indexes (117 ÷ 187 = 0.63). 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. New York's housing sub-index sits at 232; Austin's is 138. That gap reflects rent and home-price differences captured in the C2ER ACCRA quarterly survey. Groceries (New York 117 vs Austin 95), transportation (134 vs 102), and utilities (165 vs 104) all contribute, but housing is the dominant factor.
Not directly. Consumer-price indexes like C2ER ACCRA exclude state and federal income tax. To get the full picture for New York versus Texas, combine the equivalent-salary number above with the state-tax delta in the sidebar; both effects compound when you cross state lines.