City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,500 miles (2,500 km) from Missoula, MT in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,900 miles, or about 32 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 Houston, TX to Missoula, MT takes about 3 h 5 min, covering roughly 1,500 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.
Houston, TX is on Central Time and Missoula, MT is on Pacific Time — a 2-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 10 a.m. in Missoula, which puts Houston 2 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 74,627 in Missoula — about 30.8× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 35 sq mi for Missoula.
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 | Houston | Missoula | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,064/mo | 16.1% higher in Houston |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $380,500 | 61.9% higher in Missoula |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $59,783 | 1.1% higher in Houston |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 96.7 | 3.8% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 76.8 | 25.3% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 99.3 | 3.7% higher in Missoula |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 99.2 | 4.2% higher in Missoula |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Houston, you'd need $94,617 in Missoula to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Missoula, MT is about 5.4% cheaper overall than Houston, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 11% higher in Houston than in Missoula. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $75,694 in Missoula to keep the same standard of living.