City comparison
Austin, TX is about 1,300 miles (2,200 km) from Baltimore, MD in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,700 miles, or about 28 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 Austin, TX to Baltimore, MD takes about 2 h 42 min, covering roughly 1,300 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.
Austin, TX is on Central Time and Baltimore, MD is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Baltimore, which puts Austin 1 hours behind.
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 584,548 in Baltimore — about 1.6× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 81 sq mi for Baltimore.
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 | Austin | Baltimore | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,235/mo | 25.4% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $202,900 | 127.5% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $58,349 | 48.3% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 102.7 | 9.0% higher in Baltimore |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 108.6 | 30.6% higher in Baltimore |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 100.8 | 4.4% higher in Baltimore |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 102.7 | 6.8% higher in Baltimore |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Austin, you'd need $103,350 in Baltimore to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 3.2% cheaper overall than Baltimore, MD, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 4% higher in Austin than in Baltimore. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $82,680 in Baltimore to keep the same standard of living.