Austin vs Portland
Metro-area medians — Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area vs Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Austin comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Austin costs about 8% less to live in, and household incomes are similar. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Austin.
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, Austin leaves you about $10,062/yr better off after tax and local prices.
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.
Choose Austin for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
Austin vs Portland — frequently asked
- Is Austin cheaper than Portland?
- Austin is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 8% below Portland's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Austin or Portland?
- Household incomes are similar — $99,897 in the Austin metro versus $98,994 in Portland (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Austin or Portland?
- A paycheck stretches further in Austin. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $101,867 there versus $93,903 in Portland.
- Which has cheaper rent, Austin or Portland?
- Rents are close — $1,784/mo in the Austin metro versus $1,767/mo in Portland (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).