Colorado vs Texas: Cost of Living, Taxes, Rent and Safety Compared
Weighing a move between Colorado and Texas? Here’s how they compare on the numbers that decide most moves, from the same public data Locustep uses to rank all 50 states.
Shaded cells are the lower-cost, higher-income or lower-risk figure. Indexes: U.S. average = 100.
What it means for your budget
Rent alone: moving from Colorado to Texas changes a typical two-bedroom rent by −$428 a month (−$5,136 a year); the move the other way flips the sign. Taxes, pay, insurance and the move itself shift too, and how much depends on your income, your household and the city you pick.
That’s exactly what Locustep’s Net-Impact Report works out: your take-home pay after state and local taxes in both places, rent or buy for your budget, insurance and moving costs, and the month the move pays for itself.
Which state fits you better?
On Locustep’s directional scores, Colorado leads on healthcare, schools, outdoor access and walkability. Which of those matters depends entirely on you.
Where people look in each state
Colorado
Denver
$2,169/mo two-bedroom
Denver is an outdoorsy, fast-growing high-plains city with a strong craft-beer and cannabis culture and easy mountain access. Sunny and dry with real winters, housing costs have climbed hard, and traffic on the I-70 mountain corridor is a genuine weekend tax.
Colorado Springs
$1,621/mo two-bedroom
Colorado Springs is more conservative, more military and cheaper than Denver, sitting directly beneath Pikes Peak. Excellent hiking and climbing, a large defence and evangelical-institution presence, and a quieter cultural scene than its size suggests.
Boulder
$2,033/mo two-bedroom
Boulder is a wealthy, highly educated university and tech town wedged against the Flatirons — outstanding trail access, obsessive fitness culture, strict growth limits and consequently brutal housing costs. Small, insular and politically progressive.
Austin is a fast-growing tech hub with a strong music and food culture, a young professional population and an outdoor streak. It is no longer cheap, traffic is bad and worsening, summers are punishing, and the counterculture reputation now outruns the reality.
Houston
$1,497/mo two-bedroom
Houston is vast, diverse and unzoned — energy, medicine and shipping money, extraordinary food from every immigrant community, and essentially no geographic constraints. Expect heat, humidity, flooding risk and long drives, but also the lowest big-city housing costs in the country.
Dallas
$1,807/mo two-bedroom
Realistically, Dallas is a massive, hyper-commercialised, corporate-driven metropolis where daily life focuses heavily on professional careers, excellent dining and a highly air-conditioned lifestyle. It is less about cowboys and horses and much more about sprawling highways, luxury shopping and major corporate headquarters.
On rent, Texas is cheaper: a typical two-bedroom is $1,488 a month against $1,916 (HUD FY2027). Everyday costs, housing excluded, index at 99.3 in Colorado and 97.5 in Texas (U.S. = 100). Whether you come out ahead also depends on your pay and taxes in each state.
Which has lower taxes, Colorado or Texas?
Texas. A married couple on the U.S. median household income would pay about 6.2% of it in state and local taxes, against 7.4% in Colorado (Locustep estimate). Texas has no tax on wages; Colorado’s top rate is 4.4%.
Is Colorado safer than Texas?
By violent crime, Texas is lower: 389.4 per 100,000 residents against 476.3 (FBI, 2024). On natural hazards, FEMA puts Colorado at the 51st percentile and Texas at the 40th (lower is safer).
Which has better weather, Colorado or Texas?
It depends what you want. Winter afternoons average 45°F in Denver and 58°F in Dallas; summer afternoons 87°F and 94°F (NOAA 1991–2020). Colorado: four distinct seasons. Texas: hot & humid, subtropical.