Cost of Living
per year
per month
How McAllen's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in McAllen?
Your $100,000 in McAllen has the same purchasing power as $127,551 in the average US city. You'd need $27,551 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 McAllen's cost index of 78, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to McAllen, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. A genuinely affordable place to land and wage income stays untaxed at the state level lead, plus 3 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
Cost of living lands at 78 on the composite index — about 22% under the US average. That's the kind of gap that shows up in the savings rate, not just the rent check. Median rent in town runs about $955/mo against a typical household income of $56,326, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Wage income in McAllen 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.
Reported crime in McAllen comes in around 2,157 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
With a citywide Walk Score of 66/100, McAllen sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average commute time in McAllen runs around 21 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 McAllen'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 McAllen run about 48°F — cold-snap mornings happen, real snowfall doesn't, except maybe once a decade.
Not very. Average winter temperatures of about 48°F mean McAllen skips the harsh-winter problem most of the country has. A handful of cold mornings, otherwise sweater weather at worst.
Properly hot. McAllen's summer averages around 100°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 10, give or take a half-zone. McAllen's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 10 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 125 feet (38 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about McAllen's altitude shows up in daily life.
Atlantic basin storms can form from June 1 to November 30, but the serious ones cluster in August, September, and the first half of October. Residents of McAllen learn the season's rhythm fast: watch the cone, board up when it's the call, and don't shrug off the slow-mover storms — those are usually the ones that flood.
Middle of the pack. McAllen comes in around 2,157 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
McAllen is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 78 versus the 100 national baseline — about 22% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 66/100, McAllen has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $54,880 to live in McAllen 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 McAllen runs about $955/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.