New York to Houston on the C2ER ACCRA composite: -47.6% on the headline, -58.6% on housing alone. A $75,000 New York salary lines up with roughly $39,305 in Houston after the consumer-price adjustment. State tax stacks on top — sidebar below.
If your goal is to land in Houston with the same consumer-spending power you have in New York, multiply your current salary by 0.524. That ratio is the C2ER ACCRA composite index of Houston divided by the composite of New York (98/187).
| New York salary | Equivalent in Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $26,203 | -$23,797 |
| $75,000 | $39,305 | -$35,695 |
| $150,000 | $78,610 | -$71,390 |
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 New York and Houston stack up category by category against the national-average baseline of 100.
| Category | New York | Houston | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 232 | 96 | -58.6% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 117 | 92 | -21.4% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 134 | 100 | -25.4% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 107 | 97 | -9.3% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 165 | 104 | -37.0% |
| Composite | 187 | 98 | -47.6% |
Moving from New York, NY to Houston, TX is, on the headline number, a clear cost-of-living downshift: Houston runs roughly 48% cheaper than New York on the composite index. The biggest driver is housing, where Houston sits about 59% below New York on the C2ER ACCRA housing sub-index. A $75,000 salary in New York maps to roughly $39,305 of equivalent purchasing power in Houston, which is the relevant number when you negotiate a relocation offer or evaluate a job posting from a Houston-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 New York 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 New York 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.
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 — Houston comes in about 48% cheaper on the composite (98 vs 187 for New York). Housing carries most of the gap, with smaller contributions from grocery, transport, and utility sub-indexes.
The equivalent salary in Houston is about $39,305. You get there by multiplying $75,000 by the index ratio (0.52, derived from 98 and 187). This is a consumer-price comparison; layer state tax separately for after-tax parity.
Housing carries the gap. New York indexes at 232 on housing; Houston indexes at 96. The other categories — groceries (117 vs 92), transportation (134 vs 100), utilities (165 vs 104) — move smaller distances. Housing variance is what makes metros feel meaningfully different on cost.
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.