How does Dallas, Texas compare to Los Angeles, California with cost of living? Having lived in Los Angeles, I have been noticing the differences as I go out and shop, but wanted to put some real numbers to it. So, I headed over to our favorite cost of living comparison website, BestPlaces.net.
First a bit about the two cities:
Los Angeles Cost of Living
18,463,122 - METRO POPULATION
$53,379 - AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY
$526,442 - MEDIAN HOME PRICE
4.5% - UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
$1,307 - MEDIAN MONTHLY RENT
30.0 minutes - AVG COMMUTE TIME
Dallas Cost of Living
6,957,123 - METRO POPULATION
$50,350 - AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY
$210,181 - MEDIAN HOME PRICE
3.7% - UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
$969 - MEDIAN MONTHLY RENT
27.8 minutes - AVG COMMUTE TIME
Three interesting points of difference between Dallas and Los Angeles are job growth, unemployment rate and population growth. Dallas’s unemployment rate is about 3% less than Los Angeles and the job growth is positive whereas Los Angeles’s is negative.
Los Angeles vs Dallas Cost of Living
How does Los Angeles compare to Dallas as far as cost of living is concerned?
Overall: Dallas is 29% cheaper than Los Angeles
The major difference in Dallas vs Los Angeles Cost of Living is …. Housing.
Dallas is 54% cheaper than Los Angeles with Housing.
And, we can say from experience in both Dallas and Los Angeles area real estate, you get a lot more for your money in Dallas.
Los Angeles vs Dallas Salary
If you make $100,000 in Los Angeles, you can live the same lifestyle in Dallas if you make $55,202.
As a general rule of thumb, you can live the same lifestyle in Dallas for half the salary as you would have to make in Los Angeles. Since salaries are not 50% less in Dallas, this means more money in your pocket!
How Do Other Cost of Living Indexes Compare?
In the chart below, 100 is considered the national average. As you can see, Dallas comes in lower than the national average in a lot of categories. The two categories Dallas is higher than the national average is housing and miscellaneous expenses (which include clothing, restaurants, repairs, entertainment and other services).
Cost of Living in Los Angeles, California by Expense Category
Los Angeles, on the other hand, is higher than the national average in every category except for utilities. Housing is what really increases the cost of living in Los Angeles.
Relocating to Dallas from Los Angeles?
You’re making an excellent choice! How do we know? Because we’ve done it! Dallas is a great place to live and you’ll find most of the people who currently live in Dallas have relocated from other parts of the country – many of them from Los Angeles – so you won’t be the one person who isn’t from Dallas.
Need Help Finding a Place to Live in Dallas?
When we decided to move to Dallas, it was pretty difficult to find quality information about Dallas neighborhoods. We vowed to make that process much easier for our clients and have spent the last several months compiling our Dallas Neighborhood Guide. Check it out and tell us what you think.
Need a little personalized guidance? Email us at info@NitinGuptaDFW.com or call us at (469) 269-6541 and if you tell us what you’re looking for in a neighborhood, we can point you towards the neighborhoods that would best meet your search criteria and save you time.
Tip: Want to Read the 2018 Texas Relocation Report?
Download the 2018 Texas Relocation Report here.
About us:
Why hire us to help you relocate to Dallas? Well for starters, we’ve actually done it. Many other Dallas Realtors claim to know about relocating to Dallas, but have lived in Dallas their entire lives. Not us! We moved to Dallas from West coast and made a lot of mistakes in the process. Since then, we vowed to make it easier for those who follow us. So far, we have a 100% success rate with our clients being happy where they ended up. These same clients knew nothing about Dallas when they decided to move. We helped them find the best part of town for them and they are all happy Dallasites now. If you want to have that same relocation experience, fill out our Dallas Relocation Survey, email us at info@NitinGuptaDFW.com or call us at (469) 269-6541 to get started!
Want More Tips About Relocating to Dallas?Try our Dallas Relocation Blog and our Guide to Relocating to Dallas for more Dallas relocation tips.
