Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Mission's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Mission?
Your $100,000 in Mission has the same purchasing power as $127,943 in the average US city. You'd need $27,943 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 Mission's cost index of 78, sorted by closest match.
Mission 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 3 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
By the numbers, Mission is one of the more affordable US cities of its size. The composite index sits at 78, about 22% below the national average, with housing as the main driver of the discount. Median rent in town runs about $876/mo against a typical household income of $56,421, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Living in Mission 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.
Reported crime in Mission comes in around 2,025 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 58/100, Mission 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 Mission 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 Mission'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 Mission 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 Mission skips the harsh-winter problem most of the country has. A handful of cold mornings, otherwise sweater weather at worst.
Properly hot. Mission'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.
Mission 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 118 feet (36 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Mission's altitude shows up in daily life.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Mission, 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. Mission comes in around 2,025 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Mission 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 58/100, Mission 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 $54,712 to live in Mission 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 Mission runs about $876/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.