A $75,000 salary in San Diego requires about $46,747 in San Antonio to keep your real spending power flat. Housing leads the gap at -53.5% versus a composite -37.7% on the C2ER ACCRA cost-of-living index. Tax sits separately — see the state-tax sidebar.
Multiply your San Diego salary by 0.623 (the index ratio 91/146) to get the San Antonio number that preserves your real-terms spending. The three anchor rows below — $50k, $75k, $150k — are the most common comparison points for relocation offers.
| San Diego salary | Equivalent in San Antonio | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $31,164 | -$18,836 |
| $75,000 | $46,747 | -$28,253 |
| $150,000 | $93,493 | -$56,507 |
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 San Diego and San Antonio stack up category by category against the national-average baseline of 100.
| Category | San Diego | San Antonio | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 185 | 86 | -53.5% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 107 | 90 | -15.9% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 127 | 95 | -25.2% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 102 | 95 | -6.9% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 113 | 96 | -15.0% |
| Composite | 146 | 91 | -37.7% |
For someone weighing a move from San Diego, CA to San Antonio, TX, the cost-of-living comparison is the cleanest part of the analysis. San Antonio runs about 38% 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 $46,747 in San Antonio 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.
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.
Plug your real numbers into the take-home pay calculator to see the after-tax difference at your filing status and salary. Federal withholding is constant; the state side is what changes when you cross state lines. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
Per C2ER ACCRA's composite, no — San Antonio runs at 91 against San Diego at 146, putting San Antonio about 38% cheaper. Housing is the largest single contributor; groceries, transport, and utilities follow at smaller magnitudes.
Approximately $46,747. The math: $75,000 times the index ratio 0.62 (which is 91/146) equals the salary in San Antonio that preserves your real-terms spending power. State tax sits on top — handled separately in the sidebar above.
Look at housing first. San Diego sits at 185 on the housing sub-index; San Antonio sits at 86. The other four categories (groceries 107 vs 90, transport 127 vs 95, utilities 113 vs 96) all move smaller absolute distances and rarely dominate the composite.
State tax is separate from the cost-of-living index. The C2ER ACCRA composite covers consumer prices only; the sidebar on this page shows the California vs Texas state-tax delta at three salary anchors. Add the two effects for the full after-tax comparison — they don't double-count.