Houston, TX → Tulsa, OK
Moving to Tulsa costs you $601 a month
−$7,212 a year for the same registered nurse, the same household size, and the same number of bedrooms.
In 2022-2023, 257 households moved Houston → Tulsa (avg AGI $106,490). 263 went the other way. The whole move →
| Per month | Houston | Tulsa | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $7,958 | $7,022 | −$936 |
| Income and payroll tax | $1,661 | $1,676 | +$15 |
| Take-home pay | $6,298 | $5,346 | −$951 |
| Rent | $1,199 | $971 | −$228 |
| Getting around | $572 | $536 | −$36 |
| Groceries | $380 | $356 | −$24 |
| Healthcare | $428 | $401 | −$27 |
| Utilities | $238 | $223 | −$15 |
| Everything else | $333 | $312 | −$21 |
| Left over | $3,149 | $2,548 | −$601 |
To break even in Tulsa, you'd need to earn
$95,500
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
−$3,512
A year, in state and local income tax. Effective rates: 20.9% in Houston, 23.9% in Tulsa.
More about Tulsa
Houston, TX in full
The cheapest housing of any top-10 metro, paid for in property tax and humidity.
Tulsa, OK in full
Paid remote workers to move here, and the housing math is why it worked.
The reverse move
Same two cities, but starting from Tulsa on Tulsa wages.
Tulsa → 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.