Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Harlingen's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Harlingen?
Your $100,000 in Harlingen has the same purchasing power as $126,839 in the average US city. You'd need $26,839 less here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Harlingen's cost index of 79, sorted by closest match.
Harlingen has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. The cost-of-living math actually works and texas doesn't tax your paycheck are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
By the numbers, Harlingen is one of the more affordable US cities of its size. The composite index sits at 79, about 21% below the national average, with housing as the main driver of the discount. Median rent in town runs about $867/mo against a typical household income of $50,367, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Living in Harlingen means no state income tax on your salary — Texas is one of nine states that simply doesn't have one. On a $100k income that's typically thousands of dollars a year that stay in your account instead of going to a state revenue department.
With a Walk Score of 86/100, Harlingen is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear.
Average commute time in Harlingen runs around 17 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Reasons are pulled from Harlingen's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
It's rare. Winters in Harlingen run about 50°F — cold-snap mornings happen, real snowfall doesn't, except maybe once a decade.
Not very. Average winter temperatures of about 50°F mean Harlingen skips the harsh-winter problem most of the country has. A handful of cold mornings, otherwise sweater weather at worst.
Properly hot. Harlingen's summer averages around 93°F with daily highs that routinely break 100°F. The trick to summer here is starting the day at sunrise and staying inside through the worst of it.
Harlingen falls in roughly USDA Zone 10. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Around 43 feet (13 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Harlingen's altitude shows up in daily life.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Harlingen, the practical advice is: have a few days of water and supplies on hand from August onward, know your evacuation route, and don't wait for the news to tell you a storm is "probably nothing" — track the cone yourself.
Middle of the pack. Harlingen comes in around 3,176 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Harlingen is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 79 versus the 100 national baseline — about 21% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Harlingen scores 86/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. It's the kind of city where you don't think of going to the grocery store as "going" to the grocery store.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $55,188 to live in Harlingen the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Harlingen runs about $867/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.