City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,100 miles (1,700 km) from Raleigh, NC 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 Houston, TX to Raleigh, NC takes about 2 h 7 min, covering roughly 1,100 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 Raleigh, NC is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in Raleigh, 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 465,517 in Raleigh — about 4.9× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 150 sq mi for Raleigh.
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 | Raleigh | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,371/mo | 11.0% higher in Raleigh |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $347,000 | 47.7% higher in Raleigh |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $78,631 | 30.1% higher in Raleigh |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 96.8 | 3.7% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 89.5 | 7.6% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 98.4 | 2.8% higher in Raleigh |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 97.9 | 2.8% higher in Raleigh |
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 $99,650 in Raleigh to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston and Raleigh have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $79,720 in Raleigh to keep the same standard of living.