Here's What A $100,000 Salary Actually Gets You In 25 Texas Cities
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- Business Insider looked at the purchasing power of a six-figure salary in different Texas cities.
- We adjusted $100,000 for Texas' 25 metro areas using cost of living data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
- Based on 2023 data, the purchasing power of $100,000 would be $102,438 in the Austin metro area.
One of Texas' big draws for the thousands of Americans who move there each year is its relatively low cost of living.
However, purchasing power isn't the same across Texas metros. If you had $100,000 in Austin, it wouldn't have the same value as in Longview, Corpus Christi, and other places in the state.
To compare people's purchasing power depending on where they are, Business Insider calculated what $100,000 means for each Texas metropolitan statistical area when adjusted by its regional price parity. That gives a sense of how much $100,000 at national average prices would actually buy in those cities based on their local cost of living.
Most of the 25 metros in the state had regional price parities below 100 in 2023, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed. That means their price levels were less than the national average.
"Whether you are considering a job offer in a more expensive city, looking for an affordable place to retire, or are just curious about how price levels compare between different parts of the country, our regional price parities can help," Vipin Arora, the director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a December post.
Texas has long been an attractive state for movers. Census Bureau data showed Texas had the largest positive net domestic migration — or the biggest number of people moving in from elsewhere in the US minus people leaving Texas for another state — from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, among states.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that many kinds of healthcare workers make over $100,000 on average in Texas. Ship engineers, postsecondary business teachers, and management analysts are a few of the other jobs that make over $100,000 on average in the Lone Star State.
The Dallas metro area had the highest regional price parity among the 25 Texas metros. Given the regional price parity for Dallas was 103.3 in 2023, that would mean the adjusted value of $100,000 at average national prices equals around $96,800 in that city.
Below is what $100,000 is worth in cities across Texas, ranked from lowest adjusted value to highest. We also included the 2023 regional price parity for each metro in Texas.
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Regional price parity: 103.293
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $96,812
ANDREY DENISYUK/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 100.220
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $99,780
Duy Do/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 97.620
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $102,438
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 94.761
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $105,529
Sean Pavone/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 93.727
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $106,693
BOB WESTON/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 92.386
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,242
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 92.056
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,630
Edward H. Campbell/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 91.804
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,928
Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 91.761
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $108,979
Sean Pavone/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 91.306
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $109,522
Holger Leue/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.869
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,049
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.869
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,049
halbergman/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.812
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,118
Jacob Boomsma/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 90.786
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,149
TriciaDaniel/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.701
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,252
Tricia Daniel/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 90.631
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,338
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.241
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,814
halbergman/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 90.238
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $110,818
Aaron Yoder/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 89.849
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $111,298
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 88.914
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $112,468
Nina Alizada/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 88.417
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $113,100
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 87.786
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $113,913
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 85.555
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $116,884
K.Woolf/Shutterstock
Regional price parity: 85.308
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $117,222
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Regional price parity: 85.183
$100,000 adjusted by RPP: $117,394