Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Little Elm's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Little Elm?
Your $100,000 in Little Elm has the same purchasing power as $92,336 in the average US city. You'd need $7,664 more 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 Little Elm's cost index of 108, sorted by closest match.
If you're weighing a move to Little Elm, the short answer is that the city has a few genuine arguments going for it — most obviously no state income tax and paychecks here run high, plus 3 more things worth knowing. Here's the longer version.
Texas is one of the handful of US states with no state income tax on wages, so the only income-tax bite on a paycheck in Little Elm is federal. For a household earning $100k, that's a tangible four-figure difference every year compared to a comparable salary in California or New York.
Median household income in Little Elm is $110,218 — well above the US median of roughly $75k. It's a city where high-paying industries (tech, finance, professional services) cluster, and the income distribution tilts noticeably upward relative to most of the country.
Little Elm reports roughly 665 crime incidents per 100,000 residents, well under the US average of about 3,500 per 100k. As always, citywide numbers paper over real differences between neighborhoods — but the broader trend here is on the calmer end of the US distribution.
Little Elm's air quality index averages about 41 — comfortably in the EPA's "good" range. No daily ritual of checking the AQI before going for a run, no smoky-day plans, no surprise asthma flare-ups for the kids. The kind of background condition you notice mostly by its absence.
39% of adults 25 and over in Little Elm hold a bachelor's degree or higher — meaningfully above the US average of around 36%. That correlates with the things you'd expect: stronger schools, more white-collar employers, more bookstores than the population alone would predict.
Reasons are pulled from Little Elm'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.
Now and then. Little Elm's winters are cool rather than truly cold — about 40°F on average — so most of the precipitation falls as rain. A snowy morning happens a few times a season; sustained accumulation is rare.
Mild on the cold side. Little Elm's winter average of about 40°F is the kind of weather where you want a jacket but the heating bill is manageable. Snow is rare, frost is occasional, and the lawn never really browns out.
Genuinely hot. Summer in Little Elm averages about 96°F, and peak afternoons run well over a hundred. Outdoor plans move to mornings and evenings; AC is the most-used appliance in the house.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 9. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 9 or colder should survive a typical winter in Little Elm. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Little Elm is at about 525 feet (160 m) above sea level. High enough to be solidly above any coastal concern, low enough that altitude isn't a factor.
Officially, Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, but most of the action lands between mid-August and mid-October. For Little Elm, that's when to keep half an eye on the National Hurricane Center forecast cone — and when an actual evacuation plan is worth having in the drawer if you're in a low-lying or coastal neighborhood.
By the numbers, yes. Little Elm reports roughly 665 crime incidents per 100,000 residents — well under the US average of about 3,500 per 100k. The big caveat applies as always: every city has neighborhoods that look nothing like the citywide average. But the citywide average here is genuinely good.
Roughly average. Little Elm's cost-of-living index is 108, putting it in the band where rent, groceries, and utilities track the national norm. Not a bargain, not a premium.
Not really — Little Elm is built around the car. Its Walk Score of 0 out of 100 means almost every errand is a drive. Living without a car is technically possible but real work; most residents wouldn't try it.
Roughly $75,810 a year would match the lifestyle of someone earning $70,000 in an average US city. That's a starting point, not a target — negotiate higher when you can. Median rent in Little Elm runs about $1,916/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.