Austin, TX
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Austin ranks 12th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 25th for income. A household earns $99,897 a year while median rent runs $1,784/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 2% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is affordability (12th of 300), while rent is the soft spot (265th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 265th and home prices 258th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
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 in Austin, your take-home is worth about $62,523 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
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.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 25th of 300↑23.4%$99,897
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 194th of 30098 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $101,867
- Per-capita income
- $59,403
- Full-time pay
- $57,058
Housing
- Median rent
- 265th of 300↑34.4%$1,784/mo
- Home value
- 258th of 300↑51.6%$482,800
- Property tax
- $6,896/yr · 1.4%
- Sales tax
- 8.20%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 99th of 3003.9%
- Bachelor's+
- 12th of 30052.3%
- Avg commute
- 259th of 30028.2 min
People
- Population
- 2,550,637
- Population change
- +14.5%
- Median age
- 36.2 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 18.5%
- Broadband
- 95.8%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 248th of 30052
- Natural-hazard loss
- 97th of 300$11/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 91st of 30016.8%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 14.2%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Affordability
- + Household income
- + Job market
- + Education
- + Hazard safety
- + Health
Watch-outs
- – Rent
- – Home prices
- – Commute
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — austin bergstrom intl ap.
What jobs pay in Austin
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $263,070
- IT managers
- $176,990
- Financial managers
- $167,180
- Lawyers
- $153,330
- Pharmacists
- $151,290
- Software developers
- $134,120
- General & operations managers
- $117,850
- Civil engineers
- $100,470
- Registered nurses
- $97,890
- Web developers
- $84,960
- Accountants & auditors
- $83,120
- Police officers
- $82,290
- Plumbers
- $62,810
- Secondary school teachers
- $62,320
- Elementary school teachers
- $61,270
- Electricians
- $60,390
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $57,110
- Carpenters
- $50,260
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $48,730
- Construction laborers
- $44,000
- Customer service reps
- $43,720
- Janitors
- $36,930
- Cashiers
- $33,940
- Retail salespersons
- $33,860
- Waiters & waitresses
- $27,260
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Austin metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Texas are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- California17,576
- New York4,652
- Florida3,436
- Washington3,374
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Austin
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Austin metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Austin metro?
- Median gross rent across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area is $1,784 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Austin.
- What is the median household income in the Austin metro?
- A typical household in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area earns $99,897 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Austin expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area runs about 2% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Austin metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $101,867 (versus its face value of $99,897). CityLedger rates the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Austin metro?
- The median home value across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area is $482,800 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Austin metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX Metro Area is 3.9% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).