Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Lubbock's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Lubbock?
Your $100,000 in Lubbock has the same purchasing power as $115,181 in the average US city. You'd need $15,181 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 Lubbock's cost index of 87, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Lubbock, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and wage income stays untaxed at the state level lead, plus 3 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 87, a comfortable 13% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $1,093/mo against a typical household income of $58,734, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Wage income in Lubbock isn't taxed at the state level. Texas is one of the few US states with no income tax, which is one of the reasons people relocating from high-tax states tend to land here in the first place.
With a citywide Walk Score of 70/100, Lubbock sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average AQI in Lubbock comes in around 31, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Average commute time in Lubbock runs around 16 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 Lubbock'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.
Snow is a regular feature, not a surprise. With winter temperatures hovering near 29°F, Lubbock sees enough snowfall that locals don't think twice about it but also enough mild stretches that nobody owns three pairs of boots.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Lubbock averages roughly 29°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Properly hot. Lubbock's summer averages around 92°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.
Zone 8, give or take a half-zone. Lubbock's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 8 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 3,241 feet (988 m) above sea level. Visitors from the coast occasionally notice a slight shift in how dry the air feels; that's about the extent of it.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Lubbock's ~5,240 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
Lubbock is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 87 versus the 100 national baseline — about 13% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Lubbock scores 70/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. Transit Score is 28 out of 100. 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 $60,774 to live in Lubbock 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 Lubbock runs about $1,093/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.