Texas vs Washington
Side-by-side cost of living, income, housing and population. Calculator, charts and shareable results — official Census data.
Keep Your Standard — How Much There?
If you earn — in State A, what do you need in State B?
Lowest rent burden (rent as a share of monthly income) — ACS 2024 5-year. How this is calculated.
Texas operates at continental scale: energy in Houston, tech in Austin, finance in Dallas, logistics everywhere, plus military, healthcare and manufacturing. Job creation has led the nation for years and there is no state income tax.
The affordability edge has narrowed as Austin, Dallas and Houston housing climbed, though suburbs still beat coastal equivalents. Property taxes are steep and summer cooling bills real. Texas rewards strivers across industries — provided they price the property tax line before falling for the house prices.
Washington hosts Amazon, Microsoft, aerospace and a deep startup bench, paying some of the highest tech salaries anywhere, with no state income tax on top. Seattle anchors the economy; Spokane and Tacoma offer cheaper footholds.
Seattle housing now competes with California, and the lack of income tax is partly offset by high sales and property taxes. The gray winters divide opinion. Washington works spectacularly for tech workers and remote earners — and expensively for service workers in the metro.
- Washington earns more (median $94,952 vs $76,292).
- Texas rents cheaper (median $1,339 vs $1,682).
- Texas buys cheaper (median home $260,400 vs $519,800).
- Texas takes it 2-1 across income, rent and home prices.
- The widest gap is Median home value: Washington at $519,800 vs Texas at $260,400.
How to read this comparison
Comparing Texas with Washington on identical measures drawn from the same federal datasets and the same survey year. Any difference you see below is therefore a genuine difference between the two places, not an artefact of how the two tables were assembled.
On income, Texas records a median household income of $78,476 against $98,141 in Washington — Texas is $19,665 lower, or 1.25 times as much. That income difference is the single biggest driver of how the rest of this comparison turns out.
Housing runs in the opposite direction: a median home in Texas is $260,400 against $519,800 in Washington. This is exactly why comparing states on income alone, or on house prices alone, both mislead — it is the ratio between the two that determines whether a given salary actually buys a house.
Put as a multiple of annual median income, that is about 3.3 times in Texas against 5.3 times in Washington. A house at 3.3 times annual income requires a far larger down payment and a longer wait than one at 5.3 times, regardless of the headline salary difference.
Tax narrows the gap in the other direction: a median property tax bill of $4,232 in Texas against $4,556 in Washington. Because income, sales and property tax are charged on entirely different bases, the state with the lower headline rate is not always the state with the lower total bill.
Read the components rather than a single composite score. An index is always a weighting decision; the individual figures below let you apply your own, and each one links back to the full profile for that state if you want the county detail underneath.
Frequently asked questions
What data does this page show?
Compare cost of living, salaries, housing, rent, taxes and population between Texas and Washington. Calculator, charts and side-by-side table — official Census data.
Texas or Washington — which is cheaper?
Compare housing, rent, taxes and pay row by row in the table above.
What matters most when moving?
Housing cost first, then take-home pay after taxes, then rent and daily costs.
How current are these figures?
Each figure carries its own measurement period and last successful refresh. Weekly series (mortgage, gas) show a week date; annual estimates (ACS, HUD) show a survey or program year; daily series (S&P 500, Treasury) show a trading date. A figure is flagged when the source has missed its normal cycle. Full vintage list: <a href="/disclaimer">Disclaimer</a>.
Where do the numbers come from?
Official U.S. government sources only — Census ACS, BLS, HUD, Freddie Mac PMMS, EIA, FRED. LifeIndexData is independent and free: not affiliated with, sponsored by, or compensated by any lender, and advertising never affects our data. Source table: <a href="/about">About</a>.
Is this financial advice?
No. Informational only — see the <a href="/disclaimer">Disclaimer</a>.