City comparison
Durham, NC is about 1,000 miles (1,700 km) from Houston, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,300 miles, or about 22 hours (about 2 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 Durham, NC to Houston, TX takes about 2 h 6 min, covering roughly 1,000 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.
Durham, NC is on Eastern Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Durham, it's 11 a.m. in Houston, which puts Durham 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 284,094 in Durham — about 8.1× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 120 sq mi for Durham.
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 | Durham | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,296/mo | $1,235/mo | 4.9% higher in Durham |
| Median home value | $316,600 | $235,000 | 34.7% higher in Durham |
| Median household income | $74,710 | $60,440 | 23.6% higher in Durham |
| Groceries index | 96.8 | 100.4 | 3.7% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 89.8 | 96.3 | 7.2% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 98.4 | 95.8 | 2.8% higher in Durham |
| Healthcare index | 97.9 | 95.2 | 2.8% higher in Durham |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Durham, you'd need $102,345 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Durham, NC is about 2.3% cheaper overall than Houston, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 5% higher in Houston than in Durham. If you earn $80,000 in Durham, you'd need about $81,876 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.