City comparison
El Monte, CA is about 1,400 miles (2,200 km) from Houston, TX 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 El Monte, CA to Houston, TX takes about 2 h 43 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.
El Monte, CA is on Pacific Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 2-hour difference. When it's noon in El Monte, it's 2 p.m. in Houston, which puts El Monte 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 108,682 in El Monte — about 21.1× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 9.6 sq mi for El Monte.
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 | El Monte | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,605/mo | $1,235/mo | 30.0% higher in El Monte |
| Median home value | $597,200 | $235,000 | 154.1% higher in El Monte |
| Median household income | $59,929 | $60,440 | 0.9% higher in Houston |
| Groceries index | 106.4 | 100.4 | 6.0% higher in El Monte |
| Utilities index | 155.6 | 96.3 | 61.5% higher in El Monte |
| Transportation index | 104.4 | 95.8 | 9.0% higher in El Monte |
| Healthcare index | 104.3 | 95.2 | 9.6% higher in El Monte |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in El Monte, you'd need $73,720 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 26.3% cheaper overall than El Monte, CA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 60% higher in El Monte than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in El Monte, you'd need about $58,976 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.