Austin vs Raleigh
Metro-area medians — Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area vs Raleigh-Cary, NC Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Raleigh comes out ahead, winning 4 of the 4 clearly-decided measures.
Austin and Raleigh are closely matched on both cost of living and household income. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
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 $2,753/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 Raleigh for
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Austin vs Raleigh — frequently asked
- Is Austin cheaper than Raleigh?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Austin and Raleigh metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Austin or Raleigh?
- Household incomes are similar — $99,897 in the Austin metro versus $102,144 in Raleigh (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Austin or Raleigh?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($101,867 versus $104,062).
- Which has cheaper rent, Austin or Raleigh?
- Raleigh has cheaper rent — a median of $1,674/mo versus $1,784/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).