City comparison
Brentwood, CA is about 1,600 miles (2,600 km) from Houston, 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 Brentwood, CA to Houston, TX takes about 3 h 13 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.
Brentwood, CA is on Pacific Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 2-hour difference. When it's noon in Brentwood, it's 2 p.m. in Houston, which puts Brentwood 2 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.
Houston has a population of 2,296,253, vs 64,443 in Brentwood — about 35.6× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 15 sq mi for Brentwood.
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 | Brentwood | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,451/mo | $1,235/mo | 98.5% higher in Brentwood |
| Median home value | $735,500 | $235,000 | 213.0% higher in Brentwood |
| Median household income | $134,689 | $60,440 | 122.8% higher in Brentwood |
| Groceries index | 107.4 | 100.4 | 7.0% higher in Brentwood |
| Utilities index | 165.3 | 96.3 | 71.7% higher in Brentwood |
| Transportation index | 104.8 | 95.8 | 9.5% higher in Brentwood |
| Healthcare index | 104.8 | 95.2 | 10.1% higher in Brentwood |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Brentwood, you'd need $70,576 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 29.4% cheaper overall than Brentwood, CA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 71% higher in Brentwood than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Brentwood, you'd need about $56,461 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.