City comparison
Albany, NY is about 1,600 miles (2,500 km) from Austin, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 2,000 miles, or about 33 hours (about 3 days at 10 h/day) behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Albany, NY to Austin, TX takes about 3 h 9 min, covering roughly 1,600 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Albany, NY is on Eastern Time and Austin, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Albany, it's 11 a.m. in Austin, which puts Albany 1 hours ahead.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
Austin has a population of 958,202, vs 99,692 in Albany — about 9.6× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 21 sq mi for Albany.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Albany | Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,130/mo | $1,549/mo | 37.1% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $213,400 | $461,500 | 116.3% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $54,736 | $86,556 | 58.1% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 99.8 | 94.2 | 6.0% higher in Albany |
| Utilities index | 130.9 | 83.2 | 57.4% higher in Albany |
| Transportation index | 97.6 | 96.6 | 1.0% higher in Albany |
| Healthcare index | 98.4 | 96.1 | 2.4% higher in Albany |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Albany, you'd need $102,377 in Austin to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Albany, NY is about 2.3% cheaper overall than Austin, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 19% higher in Austin than in Albany. If you earn $80,000 in Albany, you'd need about $81,902 in Austin to keep the same standard of living.