How Does Houston Compare With Other Parts of the U.S.?
We wanted to find out how Houston compares to other parts of the USA. Being good ole guys and gals from Texas, we thought it should be a fair fight. After all, there is no need to convince us that Houston is a great place to live. We already live there and we really love it!
We decided to look for cities of a similar size, in terms of population. Then, we thought it only fair to compare median incomes with median home prices, so we could determine the affordability of a particular city. It helps to look at the school system, the cost of living, the crime rates, and the amenities as well.
Starting with the population figures, here are cities in America compared with Houston:
The Top Ten Cities in America by Population
1. New York City; New York 8,336,697
2. Los Angeles; California 3,857,799
3. Chicago; Illinois 2,714,856
4. Houston; Texas 2,160,821
5. Philadelphia; Pennsylvania 1,547,607
6. Phoenix; Arizona 1,488,750
7. San Antonio; Texas 1,382,951
8. San Diego; California 1,338,348
9. Dallas; Texas 1,241,162
10. San Jose; California 982,765
We love the Lone Star state so let’s just skip the comparison between other cities in Texas and Houston. All Texas cities are great, so that is just not necessary. New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are behemoths so they are not good to include. The smaller cities make a good comparison. Let’s see how Houston stacks up against Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, and San Jose.
In order to have unbiased information, for this report we used Area Vibes to compare the cities.
The key factors considered were the following:
• Amenities
• Cost of Living – when compared against the national average
• Crime – when compared against national crime rates
• Education – when compared to national test scores
• Household income – the median income levels
• Home Prices – the median sale price for a home
• Weather – the average monthly high for the hottest month and average monthly low for the coldest month
The five cites were each given a ranking score of A through F, with each “A” score counting for five points and each “F” score counting for 1 point. Then the scores were tallied up and averaged.
Here are the results:
Houston scored the following:
- Amenities – A
- Cost of Living – A
- Crime – F (Houston needs more work here.)
- Education – A
- Household Income – D (Income is lower but so is the costs of living and housing.)
- Home Prices – A
- Weather – C
- Overall Score 3.71 = B+
Summary
Houston did a pretty good job, coming in second with a score of 3.71 when compared to San Jose that came in first with a score of 4.00, which makes Houston a desirable place to consider. Houston did very well when comparing the median household income with the media home sales price.
It is easy to get a good job in Houston and easy to buy a home there as well.