City comparison
Cambridge, MA 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 Cambridge, MA to Houston, TX takes about 3 h 12 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.
Cambridge, MA is on Eastern Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Cambridge, it's 11 a.m. in Houston, which puts Cambridge 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.
Houston has a population of 2,296,253, vs 117,962 in Cambridge — about 19.5× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 6.4 sq mi for Cambridge.
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 | Cambridge | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,628/mo | $1,235/mo | 112.8% higher in Cambridge |
| Median home value | $997,600 | $235,000 | 324.5% higher in Cambridge |
| Median household income | $121,539 | $60,440 | 101.1% higher in Cambridge |
| Groceries index | 100.1 | 100.4 | ≈ equal (Houston slightly higher) |
| Utilities index | 147.4 | 96.3 | 53.0% higher in Cambridge |
| Transportation index | 102.2 | 95.8 | 6.8% higher in Cambridge |
| Healthcare index | 106.4 | 95.2 | 11.8% higher in Cambridge |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Cambridge, you'd need $78,001 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 22% cheaper overall than Cambridge, MA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 48% higher in Cambridge than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Cambridge, you'd need about $62,400 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.