Austin vs Seattle
Metro-area medians — Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area vs Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Austin comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Austin is about 13% cheaper to live in, while Seattle households earn about 13% more. 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 $7,351/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)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
Austin vs Seattle — frequently asked
- Is Austin cheaper than Seattle?
- Austin is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 13% below Seattle's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Austin or Seattle?
- Seattle has the higher median household income — $112,388 versus $99,897 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 13% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Austin or Seattle?
- 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 $101,129).
- Which has cheaper rent, Austin or Seattle?
- Austin has cheaper rent — a median of $1,784/mo versus $2,050/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).