Fayetteville vs Killeen
Metro-area medians — Fayetteville, NC Metro Area vs Killeen-Temple, TX Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Killeen comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Fayetteville and Killeen cost about the same to live in, but Killeen households earn about 12% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Killeen.
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, Killeen leaves you about $3,495/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 Fayetteville for
- + Median home value
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
Choose Killeen for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
Fayetteville vs Killeen — frequently asked
- Is Fayetteville cheaper than Killeen?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Fayetteville and Killeen metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Fayetteville or Killeen?
- Killeen has the higher median household income — $68,465 versus $61,379 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 12% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Fayetteville or Killeen?
- A paycheck stretches further in Killeen. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $75,127 there versus $66,732 in Fayetteville.
- Which has cheaper rent, Fayetteville or Killeen?
- Killeen has cheaper rent — a median of $1,283/mo versus $1,334/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).