One of the important factors for deciding whether or not to move to a location is the cost of living. Investopedia defines cost of living as “…the amount of money needed to cover basic expenses such as housing, food, taxes, and healthcare in a certain place and time period.” Therefore, potential residents need to decide if their income allows them to live comfortably in different regions. Today, we are going to take a general look at the cost of living in Texas and then compare the cost of living for Montgomery County specifically.
Cost of Living in Texas
This week Dave Ramsey posted an entire article devoted to the cost of living in Texas. To read it in its entirety, click here. It looks at Texas and compares it to the national average. On average, Texas falls below the national average. Its score is 92.6 versus the average score of 100. That means, that on average it is almost 7% more inexpensive to live in Texas. Texas also falls below the national average in these categories: housing, groceries, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous. It ranked higher in one category, utilities. Because Texas is such a big state, some of its cities were 23% lower and 12% higher than the national average. Therefore, it is important to focus on the city in which you are interested in residing.
Cost of Living in Montgomery County
Interestingly, I found different results for Montgomery County, Texas. According to Best Places, Montgomery County scored 100.1, which means it is 0.1% more expensive than the national average. On the other hand, Zero Down gave Montgomery County a score of 93.9, which is much more in line with the average Texas city. Even though there is some discrepancy in the scores, Texas still hangs near the national average for the United States. This means that many more places throughout the US are much more expensive to live.
Most Affordable Cities within Montgomery County
Montgomery County consists of 1,077 square miles with a population of 620,443. As such, it has several big cities and many smaller ones. According to Niche, the following are the most affordable cities within the county. In the first spot sits Patton Village. Then we have Porter Heights. Next is Willis. Coming in at 4th and 5th place respectively are Splendora and Pinehurst. Skipping ahead, in 9th place is Magnolia with Panorama Village following in 10th. Conroe finishes the list in 11th place.
If you are thinking of moving to Texas or specifically Montgomery County, then hopefully this cost of living information is useful. If you need any advice or actual listings, then please contact Mike Goins at 936-444-5929. He has over 18 years of experience and is an expert in the Lake Conroe area. He would love to find you a home in Montgomery County. After all, it is such a great place to live!