City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,100 miles (1,700 km) from Wilmington, 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 Wilmington, NC takes about 2 h 8 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 Wilmington, NC is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in Wilmington, 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 116,933 in Wilmington — about 19.6× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 51 sq mi for Wilmington.
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 | Wilmington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,213/mo | 1.8% higher in Houston |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $318,600 | 35.6% higher in Wilmington |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $58,908 | 2.6% higher in Houston |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 96.8 | 3.7% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 88.5 | 8.8% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 98.4 | 2.8% higher in Wilmington |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 97.9 | 2.8% higher in Wilmington |
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 $95,138 in Wilmington to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Wilmington, NC is about 4.9% cheaper overall than Houston, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 11% higher in Houston than in Wilmington. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $76,110 in Wilmington to keep the same standard of living.