Laredo vs McAllen
Metro-area medians — Laredo, TX Metro Area vs McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Laredo comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Laredo and McAllen cost about the same to live in, but Laredo households earn about 7% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Laredo.
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, McAllen leaves you about $871/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 Laredo for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Laredo vs McAllen — frequently asked
- Is Laredo cheaper than McAllen?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Laredo and McAllen metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Laredo or McAllen?
- Laredo has the higher median household income — $60,580 versus $56,720 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 7% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Laredo or McAllen?
- A paycheck stretches further in Laredo. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $69,667 there versus $66,034 in McAllen.
- Which has cheaper rent, Laredo or McAllen?
- McAllen has cheaper rent — a median of $971/mo versus $1,056/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).