City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,700 miles (2,700 km) from Portland, ME in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 2,100 miles, or about 35 hours (about 4 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 Portland, ME takes about 3 h 22 min, covering roughly 1,700 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 Portland, ME is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in Portland, which puts Houston 1 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 68,280 in Portland — about 33.6× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 22 sq mi for Portland.
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 | Portland | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,377/mo | 11.5% higher in Portland |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $411,600 | 75.1% higher in Portland |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $71,498 | 18.3% higher in Portland |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 97.5 | 2.9% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 131.4 | 36.5% higher in Portland |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 102.5 | 7.1% higher in Portland |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 103.3 | 8.6% higher in Portland |
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 $105,663 in Portland to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 5.4% cheaper overall than Portland, ME, based on our cost-of-living index. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $84,530 in Portland to keep the same standard of living.