To preserve the same standard of living you have today in San Antonio on $75,000, you would need $96,429 in Austin. That is a +28.6% composite shift; the line-item breakdown below shows where the gap actually concentrates. Source: C2ER ACCRA, BLS CPI weights.
Salary-equivalence math is the same across every cost-of-living comparison: scale by index ratio. For San Antonio (91) to Austin (117) that ratio is 1.286. The table below applies it to the three anchor incomes most relocators use as decision points.
| San Antonio salary | Equivalent in Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $64,286 | +$14,286 |
| $75,000 | $96,429 | +$21,429 |
| $150,000 | $192,857 | +$42,857 |
The C2ER ACCRA composite index aggregates five spending categories. Looking at them individually shows where the San Antonio-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 | San Antonio | Austin | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 86 | 138 | +60.5% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 90 | 95 | +5.6% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 95 | 102 | +7.4% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 95 | 98 | +3.2% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 96 | 104 | +8.3% |
| Composite | 91 | 117 | +28.6% |
San Antonio, TX to Austin, TX is one of the bigger cost-of-living steps you can take while staying inside the U.S.: composite index up roughly 29%, housing sub-index up about 60%. Those numbers are not directly comparable — housing weighs more heavily in any household budget that is not heavily mortgaged-in or rent-controlled, which means the effective hit on take-home spending power is usually larger than the composite figure suggests.
If you are paid the same nominal salary after the move (a remote-work scenario, or a cross-company switch at flat pay), expect a meaningful drop in discretionary income and savings. The composite index assumes an average household basket; an average household in San Antonio versus Austin actually consumes a slightly different basket because Austin renters tend to have smaller spaces, fewer cars, and more dining out. The convergence cuts the gap a bit but does not close it — even adjusted, the move costs real money on the household budget.
Income tax is a separate axis from the cost-of-living index, and Texas and Texas can disagree on it sharply. 0.00% versus 0.00% on the top-marginal or flat state rate translates to $0 versus $0 on a $75,000 salary, a $0 delta that stacks with the consumer-price story.
Use the take-home pay calculator to model the after-tax difference at your specific salary and filing status. Federal tax stays constant across the move; only the state piece moves. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
Short answer: yes. Austin runs 29% above San Antonio on the C2ER ACCRA composite (117 vs 91). Housing is the dominant driver of that gap; non-housing categories contribute smaller pieces in the same direction.
Approximately $96,429. The math: $75,000 times the index ratio 1.29 (which is 117/91) equals the salary in Austin that preserves your real-terms spending power. State tax sits on top — handled separately in the sidebar above.
The housing sub-index does the heavy lifting here: 86 in San Antonio versus 138 in Austin. Groceries, transport, healthcare, and utilities all show smaller deltas (groceries 90/95; transport 95/102; utilities 96/104). When two metros disagree on cost of living, housing is almost always the reason.
State tax is a separate adjustment. The composite cost-of-living index is a pre-tax, consumer-prices-only measure. Texas and Texas state-tax rates differ; the sidebar quantifies that gap at common salary anchors so you can add it to the consumer-price equivalent and get an after-tax number.