Beaumont vs Killeen
Metro-area medians — Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX Metro Area vs Killeen-Temple, TX Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Killeen comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Beaumont and Killeen cost about the same to live in, but Killeen households earn about 4% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
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, Beaumont leaves you about $811/yr better off after tax and local prices.
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.
Choose Killeen for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Beaumont vs Killeen — frequently asked
- Is Beaumont cheaper than Killeen?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Beaumont and Killeen metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Beaumont or Killeen?
- Killeen has the higher median household income — $68,465 versus $65,775 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 4% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Beaumont or Killeen?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($73,046 versus $75,127).
- Which has cheaper rent, Beaumont or Killeen?
- Beaumont has cheaper rent — a median of $1,134/mo versus $1,283/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).