COST OF LIVING

Compare it with where you live now.

Wherever in the U.S. you live now, see monthly costs side by side for a typical home in each place.

For reference: Greater Austin median rent $2,100 (September 2026, -2.3% vs last year) · Source: Unlock MLS — based on MLS-listed rentals (mostly houses and townhomes), so higher than typical apartment rents.

Go to the calculator ↓

01 — THE ECONOMICS OF LIVING HERE

What’s cheaper,what costs more.

You pay less0% state income taxTexas has no state income tax. Coming from California, the higher your income, the bigger the difference.

You pay moreProperty tax & insuranceProperty tax runs roughly 1.8–2.6% of value a year, and home insurance is above the national average. Budget for both.

What you getNewer, bigger homesThe same budget buys far more new construction than in California or Seattle. Many suburbs are priced like Houston or Dallas.

Right nowA buyer-friendly marketMetro inventory is 5.4 months and homes take 73 days on average to sell, so there’s room to negotiate. Rates are 7.03% (Sep 24).

02 — COST OF LIVING CALCULATOR

Enter your income and city.We’ll do the math.

Where you live nowLos AngelesAustin areaCedar Park

Home value (typical)$930,000$462,000

Mortgage P&I (mo)$4,965$2,466

Property tax (mo)$891$628

Home insurance (mo)$152$231

State income tax (mo)$465$0

Monthly total$6,472$3,325

About $3,147 less per monthYou drop state income tax but pick up higher property tax and insurance. Look at the total.

Los Angeles

Cedar Park

Assumes each city’s typical home value (Zillow ZHVI, Aug 2026), 20% down, 30-year fixed at 7.03% (Freddie Mac, Sep 24, 2026), and the Texas homestead exemption.Austin-area property tax uses each city’s 2025 combined rate (county + city + school district + fire, etc.) minus the $140K school homestead exemption. Your address and school district may differ, and newer MUD communities can run 0.2–1.0 points higher. Other cities use the county’s average effective rate (California: 1.15% for new buyers). Austin-area insurance is about 0.6% of price (Texas Department of Insurance, 2025 average premiums paid in Travis, Williamson and Hays); other cities use the state average for $400K of dwelling coverage. State income tax is a rough married-filing-jointly estimate and leaves out city or county income taxes.Review my numbers with Melissa →

03 — SAME LIFE, WHAT SALARY?

Your life as it is now.What would it take in Austin?

Using the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price index, we compare what the same goods and services cost. Based on the income and cities you entered above.

Change city or income ↑

The life you have on $150,000 a year in Los Angelescosts, in the Austin metro,about $130,000 a year13% lessAnd you stop paying California state income tax (about $5,600 a year).

Los AngelesCedar ParkDifference

Typical rent (mo)$2,778$1,72738% lower

Overall prices113.698.114% lower

Housing170.4120.429% lower

Utilities (power, gas, water)158.682.048% lower

Goods (groceries, gas, clothing…)106.693.812% lower

Services (dining, medical, education…)104.496.28% lower

Price index: U.S. average = 100 · Price area: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Rent is city-level; the other rows are a metro-wide price index, so they stay the same for every Austin-area city. For what varies by city — home prices and property tax — use the calculator above. Taxes are not part of the price index.Sources: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 (released Dec 2025; metro areas, or the state’s nonmetro portion outside them); Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), Aug 2026 (metro value where a city has none).

The numbers are the start.Let’s talk about the rest.

Review my numbers with Melissa →

Sources: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI) and Observed Rent Index (ZORI), Aug 2026; Travis, Williamson, Hays and Bastrop County tax offices (2025 combined rates by city); U.S. Census ACS 2020–24 (county effective property tax rates); Texas Department of Insurance (2025 county average premiums); NerdWallet (2026 insurance by state); Tax Foundation (2026 state income tax); Freddie Mac PMMS (Sep 24, 2026); Unlock MLS (Aug 2026).