Composite cost of living: -32.9% between San Diego and Houston. Equivalent of $75,000 in San Diego: about $50,342 in Houston. Housing alone moves -48.1%, the dominant driver per C2ER ACCRA's quarterly cost-of-living publication.
The equivalent-salary calculation scales your San Diego salary by the ratio of the two composite indexes (98 ÷ 146 = 0.671). It answers "how much do I need to earn in Houston to maintain the same consumer-spending power I have today in San Diego?"
| San Diego salary | Equivalent in Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $33,562 | -$16,438 |
| $75,000 | $50,342 | -$24,658 |
| $150,000 | $100,685 | -$49,315 |
The C2ER ACCRA composite index aggregates five spending categories. Looking at them individually shows where the San Diego-to-Houston 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 Diego | Houston | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 185 | 96 | -48.1% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 107 | 92 | -14.0% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 127 | 100 | -21.3% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 102 | 97 | -4.9% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 113 | 104 | -8.0% |
| Composite | 146 | 98 | -32.9% |
For someone weighing a move from San Diego, CA to Houston, TX, the cost-of-living comparison is the cleanest part of the analysis. Houston runs about 33% under San Diego on the composite C2ER ACCRA index, and that translates directly into salary-equivalence numbers you can use to evaluate offers: $75,000 of San Diego purchasing power equals roughly $50,342 in Houston terms.
What the index does not capture: lifestyle adjustments, neighborhood-level price variance within each metro, and tax differences between the two states. California 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.
Consumer-price indexes exclude income tax, so the equivalent-salary number above is a pre-tax comparison. Layered on top: California has a top-marginal or flat state income tax of 9.30%, while Texas's is 0.00%. At a $75,000 salary, that translates to roughly $6,975 of state tax owed in California versus $0 in Texas — a $6,975 difference that no consumer-price index captures.
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.
No — Houston comes in about 33% cheaper on the composite (98 vs 146 for San Diego). Housing carries most of the gap, with smaller contributions from grocery, transport, and utility sub-indexes.
Approximately $50,342. The math: $75,000 times the index ratio 0.67 (which is 98/146) equals the salary in Houston that preserves your real-terms spending power. State tax sits on top — handled separately in the sidebar above.
Housing is the largest line item in any cost-of-living comparison and the one with the most metro-to-metro variance. San Diego's housing sub-index sits at 185; Houston's is 96. That gap reflects rent and home-price differences captured in the C2ER ACCRA quarterly survey. Groceries (San Diego 107 vs Houston 92), transportation (127 vs 100), and utilities (113 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 California versus Texas, combine the equivalent-salary number above with the state-tax delta in the sidebar; both effects compound when you cross state lines.