City comparison
Houston, TX is about 425 miles (700 km) from Odessa, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 550 miles, or about 9 h 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 Odessa, TX takes about 52 min, covering roughly 425 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 Odessa, TX is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 11 a.m. in Odessa, which puts Houston 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 113,353 in Odessa — about 20.3× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 52 sq mi for Odessa.
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 | Odessa | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,282/mo | 3.8% higher in Odessa |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $193,500 | 21.4% higher in Houston |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $71,293 | 18.0% higher in Odessa |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 94.2 | 6.6% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 83.9 | 14.7% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 96.6 | 0.9% higher in Odessa |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 96.1 | 1.0% higher in Odessa |
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 $92,586 in Odessa to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Odessa, TX is about 7.4% cheaper overall than Houston, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 14% higher in Houston than in Odessa. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $74,069 in Odessa to keep the same standard of living.