Dallas, TX
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Dallas ranks 55th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 46th for income. A household earns $92,733 a year while median rent runs $1,718/mo, making it moderately affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 3% above the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is household income (46th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (284th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 254th and home prices 211th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Dallas, your take-home is worth about $59,476 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it less than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 46th of 300↑28.3%$92,733
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 258th of 300103 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $89,953
- Per-capita income
- $46,770
- Full-time pay
- $50,466
Housing
- Median rent
- 254th of 300↑42.9%$1,718/mo
- Home value
- 211th of 300↑53.4%$389,500
- Property tax
- $5,616/yr · 1.4%
- Sales tax
- 8.20%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 151st of 3004.5%
- Bachelor's+
- 66th of 30041%
- Avg commute
- 266th of 30028.8 min
People
- Population
- 8,344,032
- Population change
- +10.2%
- Median age
- 35.8 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 20.3%
- Broadband
- 95.1%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 284th of 30059
- Natural-hazard loss
- 142nd of 300$12/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 184th of 30019.6%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 16.2%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Affordability
- + Household income
- + Education
Watch-outs
- – Cost of living
- – Rent
- – Home prices
- – Commute
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — dal-ftw wscmo ap.
What jobs pay in Dallas
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $259,310
- IT managers
- $173,810
- Financial managers
- $169,200
- Lawyers
- $168,510
- Pharmacists
- $138,170
- Software developers
- $133,290
- General & operations managers
- $111,010
- Registered nurses
- $101,420
- Civil engineers
- $96,920
- Web developers
- $96,740
- Police officers
- $92,910
- Accountants & auditors
- $82,620
- Secondary school teachers
- $65,890
- Elementary school teachers
- $65,070
- Plumbers
- $61,250
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $59,530
- Electricians
- $59,010
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $48,860
- Carpenters
- $48,740
- Customer service reps
- $44,990
- Construction laborers
- $43,960
- Janitors
- $34,860
- Retail salespersons
- $33,400
- Cashiers
- $29,910
- Waiters & waitresses
- $24,160
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Dallas metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Texas are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- California27,062
- Florida10,953
- Illinois8,838
- Oklahoma7,997
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Dallas
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Dallas metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Dallas metro?
- Median gross rent across the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area is $1,718 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Dallas.
- What is the median household income in the Dallas metro?
- A typical household in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area earns $92,733 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Dallas expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area runs about 3% above the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are higher than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Dallas metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $89,953 (versus its face value of $92,733). CityLedger rates the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area moderately affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Dallas metro?
- The median home value across the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area is $389,500 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Dallas metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX Metro Area is 4.5% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).