City comparison
Clifton, NJ is about 1,400 miles (2,300 km) from Houston, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,800 miles, or about 29 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 Clifton, NJ to Houston, TX takes about 2 h 50 min, covering roughly 1,400 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.
Clifton, NJ is on Eastern Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Clifton, it's 11 a.m. in Houston, which puts Clifton 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 89,451 in Clifton — about 25.7× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 11 sq mi for Clifton.
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 | Clifton | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,633/mo | $1,235/mo | 32.2% higher in Clifton |
| Median home value | $428,000 | $235,000 | 82.1% higher in Clifton |
| Median household income | $94,179 | $60,440 | 55.8% higher in Clifton |
| Groceries index | 109.4 | 100.4 | 9.0% higher in Clifton |
| Utilities index | 124.5 | 96.3 | 29.3% higher in Clifton |
| Transportation index | 105.0 | 95.8 | 9.6% higher in Clifton |
| Healthcare index | 105.7 | 95.2 | 11.1% higher in Clifton |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Clifton, you'd need $79,800 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 20.2% cheaper overall than Clifton, NJ, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 41% higher in Clifton than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Clifton, you'd need about $63,840 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.