Kansas City, MO → Houston, TX
You'd keep $564 more a month in Houston
+$6,768 a year for the same registered nurse, the same household size, and the same number of bedrooms.
In 2022-2023, 419 households moved Kansas City → Houston (avg AGI $72,100). 317 went the other way. The whole move →
| Per month | Kansas City | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $7,583 | $7,974 | +$391 |
| Income and payroll tax | $1,905 | $1,666 | −$239 |
| Take-home pay | $5,679 | $6,309 | +$630 |
| Rent | $1,184 | $1,199 | +$15 |
| Getting around | $551 | $572 | +$21 |
| Groceries | $372 | $380 | +$8 |
| Healthcare | $419 | $428 | +$9 |
| Utilities | $233 | $238 | +$5 |
| Everything else | $326 | $333 | +$7 |
| Left over | $2,596 | $3,160 | +$564 |
To break even in Houston, you'd need to earn
$86,000
Household gross, versus $91,000 today. That's the salary that leaves you exactly as much at the end of the month as Kansas City does now.
The tax difference alone
+$4,260
A year, in state and local income tax. Texas has no wage income tax.
More about Houston
Kansas City, MO in full
Genuinely low cost of living for a metro with real amenities.
Houston, TX in full
The cheapest housing of any top-10 metro, paid for in property tax and humidity.
The reverse move
Same two cities, but starting from Houston on Houston wages.
Houston → Kansas City →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.