A $75,000 salary in San Francisco requires about $35,547 in San Antonio to keep your real spending power flat. Housing leads the gap at -65.6% versus a composite -52.6% on the C2ER ACCRA cost-of-living index. Tax sits separately — see the state-tax sidebar.
Salary-equivalence math is the same across every cost-of-living comparison: scale by index ratio. For San Francisco (192) to San Antonio (91) that ratio is 0.474. The table below applies it to the three anchor incomes most relocators use as decision points.
| San Francisco salary | Equivalent in San Antonio | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $23,698 | -$26,302 |
| $75,000 | $35,547 | -$39,453 |
| $150,000 | $71,094 | -$78,906 |
The breakdown below decomposes the San Francisco-vs-San Antonio cost-of-living gap into its five constituent sub-indexes. National average for each is 100; the delta column shows how each line item changes between the two metros. Housing routinely shows the largest swing.
| Category | San Francisco | San Antonio | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing Rent + median home price | 250 | 86 | -65.6% |
| Groceries Supermarket basket | 120 | 90 | -25.0% |
| Transportation Fuel, transit, parking | 135 | 95 | -29.6% |
| Healthcare Doctor visits, prescriptions | 118 | 95 | -19.5% |
| Utilities Electric, gas, internet | 150 | 96 | -36.0% |
| Composite | 192 | 91 | -52.6% |
Moving from San Francisco, CA to San Antonio, TX is, on the headline number, a clear cost-of-living downshift: San Antonio runs roughly 53% cheaper than San Francisco on the composite index. The biggest driver is housing, where San Antonio sits about 66% below San Francisco on the C2ER ACCRA housing sub-index. A $75,000 salary in San Francisco maps to roughly $35,547 of equivalent purchasing power in San Antonio, which is the relevant number when you negotiate a relocation offer or evaluate a job posting from a San Antonio-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 San Francisco 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 San Francisco 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.
Tax is the silent leg of any cross-state move. California runs a 9.30% top-marginal or flat state income tax; Texas runs 0.00%. That maps to $6,975 versus $0 at the $75,000 anchor income — a $6,975 difference layered on top of the consumer-price comparison above.
The take-home pay calculator gives you the after-tax delta at your real salary and filing status. Federal tax is invariant under the move; the state rate is the only piece that flips. See the take-home pay calculator or the state-by-state take-home pay article for the precise after-tax number.
No — San Antonio comes in about 53% cheaper on the composite (91 vs 192 for San Francisco). Housing carries most of the gap, with smaller contributions from grocery, transport, and utility sub-indexes.
Roughly $35,547 per year in San Antonio matches what $75,000 buys in San Francisco, based on the C2ER ACCRA composite ratio of 0.47. The result is pre-tax — add the state-tax delta from the sidebar for the full after-tax comparison.
Housing is the largest line item in any cost-of-living comparison and the one with the most metro-to-metro variance. San Francisco's housing sub-index sits at 250; San Antonio's is 86. That gap reflects rent and home-price differences captured in the C2ER ACCRA quarterly survey. Groceries (San Francisco 120 vs San Antonio 90), transportation (135 vs 95), and utilities (150 vs 96) 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.