Houston, TX → Kansas City, MO
Moving to Kansas City costs you $563 a month
−$6,756 a year for the same registered nurse, the same household size, and the same number of bedrooms.
In 2022-2023, 317 households moved Houston → Kansas City (avg AGI $64,000). 419 went the other way. The whole move →
| Per month | Houston | Kansas City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $7,958 | $7,568 | −$390 |
| Income and payroll tax | $1,661 | $1,899 | +$238 |
| Take-home pay | $6,298 | $5,669 | −$629 |
| Rent | $1,199 | $1,184 | −$15 |
| Getting around | $572 | $551 | −$21 |
| Groceries | $380 | $372 | −$8 |
| Healthcare | $428 | $419 | −$9 |
| Utilities | $238 | $233 | −$5 |
| Everything else | $333 | $326 | −$7 |
| Left over | $3,149 | $2,586 | −$563 |
To break even in Kansas City, you'd need to earn
$101,500
Household gross, versus $95,500 today. That's the salary that leaves you exactly as much at the end of the month as Houston does now.
The tax difference alone
−$4,250
A year, in state and local income tax. Effective rates: 20.9% in Houston, 25.1% in Kansas City.
More about Kansas City
Houston, TX in full
The cheapest housing of any top-10 metro, paid for in property tax and humidity.
Kansas City, MO in full
Genuinely low cost of living for a metro with real amenities.
The reverse move
Same two cities, but starting from Kansas City on Kansas City wages.
Kansas City → Houston →Rent is Zillow's asking rent for each metro; taxes and living costs are modelled. An estimate, not a quote or tax advice. How this is calculated.