A brand new cost-of-living index yields a outcome that many Houstonians will discover shocking: Houston shouldn’t be the most costly place to reside in Texas. Dallas and Austin are costlier.
Numbeo’s cost-of-living index for 2025 reveals Dallas ranks first in Texas and twenty fourth in North America, touchdown at 65.8. The associated fee-of-living index compares the price of residing in New York Metropolis (which sits at 100) with the price of residing in one other metropolis. Austin is at 61.7, Houston at 60.6, and San Antonio at 58.8.
Houston ranks fortieth total in North America, out of 52 cities within the index.
Numbeo’s cost-of-living index takes into consideration the price of gadgets like groceries, restaurant meals, transportation, and utilities. The index excludes lease.
When lease is added to the cost-of-living index, Houston remains to be third amongst Texas cities. Dallas grabs the No. 21 spot in North America (57.1), one notch above Austin (56.6). Houston ranks thirty fifth (51.4) and San Antonio ranks forty second (34.6).
Hire index
Whereas Dallas holds the highest Texas spot on Numbeo’s total cost-of-living index, Austin faces the very best lease costs. Numbeo’s lease index for Austin sits at 50.1, placing it in twelfth place amongst main cities in North America and highest in Texas, above the indexes for Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. Houston lands at twenty seventh.
The lease index in New York Metropolis, which tops the checklist, is 100. As Numbeo explains, the lease index estimates the price of renting an condominium in a metropolis in contrast with New York Metropolis. If the lease index is 50, for instance, this implies the common lease in that metropolis is 50 % under the common lease in New York Metropolis.
Round Texas, the lease index is:
- 46.2 in Dallas
- 39.8 in Houston
- 34.6 in San Antonio
Restaurant index
In distinction to its displaying on the lease and cost-of-living indexes, Houston outranks Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio on Numbeo’s restaurant index. This index compares the costs of meals and drinks at eating places and bars to these in New York Metropolis.
Houston sits at No. 25 on the restaurant index, at 68.9. Dallas is available in at No. 32 (67.1), Austin at No. 34 (66.6), and San Antonio at No. 36 (65.2).
The Nationwide Restaurant Affiliation reported in December that menu costs within the U.S. had risen 3.6 % prior to now 12 months, outpacing good points in grocery costs and the federal authorities’s total Client Worth Index. Thankfully for diners, that was the smallest 12-month enhance in menu costs since August 2020, in line with the affiliation.
Toast, which supplies a cloud-based restaurant administration system, says the upper menu costs mirror increased meals costs.
“Meals costs have been growing resulting from inflation, labor bills, gas prices, and provide chain disruptions, all of which impression restaurant profitability, Toast says. “Whereas elevating menu costs is one choice to fight rising meals prices, some eating places have launched service prices and simplified menus to keep away from passing all prices onto prospects.”
