Calgary vs Houston: which should you move to?
Calgary or Houston? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
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The two housing bills are in different currencies, but held against local pay Calgary's is the lighter. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,005 CAD a month on Calgary's benchmark, roughly 37% of the city's 2020 median household income, and about $2,578 USD on Greater Houston's single-family median, roughly 48% of the City of Houston's 2024 median, a regional price read against the city's pay. The rate makes most of that gap: 7.03% against 4.34%, though Houston's is fixed for thirty years and Calgary's renews after five. Both are oil and gas capitals, and Houston's labor market is the steadier, 5.1% metro unemployment in July 2026 on an unadjusted count against 6.8%, with 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region. Safety is Calgary's, 15 homicides in 2025 at about 1.0 per 100,000 against 270 at about 11.3. Choose Houston for the job market, two airports that handled about 62 million passengers in 2025, a 12.1 C January and no state income tax. Choose Calgary for a house that is cheaper to hold, coverage that comes with residency, a dry 16.9 C July and no hurricane season.
Calgary prices are in CAD and Houston prices are in USD. The tables leave them in their own currency and compare ratios and rates instead; a conversion would be stale by the time you read it.
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,306,784 (2021) | 2,397,315 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 1,836,012 (2025) | 7,904,627 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 5.5% (2016-2021) | 4.2% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $569,200 (July 2026) | $330,000 (August 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark Houston publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $743,900 | $330,000 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $297,600 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,908/mo (average, October 2025) | $1,327/mo (median, September 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,581/mo | $1,120/mo | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 23.4% of a year's income | 24.7% of a year's income | Calgary |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Calgary against 30 in Houston, each compounding the way its own country's lenders do. The rates are not a spread you can shop: they are what each market charges. | $2,480/mo at 4.34% | $1,762/mo at 7.03% | Not directly comparable |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.8× | 5.1× | Houston |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $3,785/yr (0.665%, 2026) | $4,392/yr (1.331%, 2025) | Calgary |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | None | None | Even |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | No cap on the amount | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Calgary: The 2026 municipal rate of 0.38906% plus the provincial education rate of 0.27593%, applied to the assessed value. Houston: About 1.33% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $330,000 Greater Houston median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Houston and Houston ISD, in Harris County, is taxed by eight units for 2025, which add to 2.12522 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Houston ISD the state's $140,000 and a further 20% of its own, Houston City College 17%, and Harris County, the Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority, the Hospital District, the Department of Education and the City 20% each. So Harris County levies 0.38096 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,006; Harris County Flood Control District levies 0.04966 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $131; Port of Houston Authority levies 0.0059 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $16; Harris County Hospital District levies 0.18761 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $495; Harris County Department of Education levies 0.004798 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $13; City of Houston levies 0.51919 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,371; Houston ISD levies 0.8783 per $100 on $124,000 after a $206,000 exemption, $1,089; Houston City College levies 0.098802 per $100 on $273,900 after a $56,100 exemption, $271. The eight come to $4,391 a year, 1.33% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,013. The median is the region's, and a typical home inside the city is cheaper: on $261,740, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical City of Houston home, the same eight units come to $3,228, 1.23%, lower because the school district's flat exemption is a larger share of a cheaper house. These are the 2025 rates, the bills due by 31 January 2026. When these figures were retrieved the Harris County Tax Office's table already listed 2026 rates for the county, the Flood Control District, the Hospital District and the Port, but not yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all eight are published.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | 61.7 (2025) | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 Canada counts every violent Criminal Code incident; the FBI counts four offences. The Canadian figure is always the larger one for that reason alone. | 1,086 (2025) | 890 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,328 (2025) | 3,854 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 15 (2025) | 270 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
The CMA Crime Severity Index fell again in 2025 (61.7, down 3%) and sits well below the national 75.0, and homicides hit a ten-year low of 15. Police-counted violent crime still rose 4% over 2024 and 16% over the five-year average, driven by assaults, and property crime rose in 2025 on theft and fraud while staying below 2019 levels.
What the rates cover: Calgary Police Service 2025 crime report, city of Calgary, violent crime victims per 100,000 (16,973 victims; 1,082 in 2024). CPS counts violence by victims, not incidents.
Homicides: Calgary Police Service, city of Calgary, 2025; rate 1.0 per 100,000. Prior years: 21 (2024), 24 (2023), 27 (2022), 21 (2021), 34 (2020). Lowest count in ten years; fatal shootings fell to 2 from 7.
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Houston went from 28,850 in 2021 to 26,383 in 2022, 25,517 in 2023, 26,758 in 2024 and 21,345 in 2025, a 20% drop in the last year and 26% in four, and property offenses from 97,068 to a peak of 105,522 in 2022, then 104,829, 100,302 and 92,382, 12% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft rose from 15,694 in 2021 to 20,085 in 2023 and fell to 12,516 in 2025. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 19% (18,341 to 14,839), robberies down 24% (6,359 to 4,859), rapes down 20% (1,729 to 1,377) and murders down 18% (329 to 270). HPD's own year-end counts show the same direction: homicides down from 331 to 272, robberies from 6,438 to 4,987 and aggravated assaults from 18,590 to 15,378 (Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, as reported by the Houston Chronicle). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 21,345 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Houston Police Department (ORI TXHPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 2,397,315 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 2,413,559 the rate is 884. HPD's year-end figures as reported to the Major Cities Chiefs Association and quoted by the Houston Chronicle run slightly higher than the CDE's: 272 homicides, 4,987 robberies and 15,378 aggravated assaults, against 270, 4,859 and 14,839. The Chronicle did not give HPD's rape count, so HPD's own total on the FBI definition could not be rebuilt.
Homicides: 270 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 329 in 2024, about 11.3 per 100,000 on the city population. HPD's own year-end count, obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open records request, was 272 against 331 in 2024, a 17% drop; nothing fetched explains the gap of two cases in each year between the two series. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 474, in 2021.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -7.6 °C | 12.1 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 16.9 °C | 29.5 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 445 mm | 1,317 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 139 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,396 hours | 2,578 hours | Houston |
Environment and Climate Change Canada 1991-2020 normals, Calgary Int'l A (climate ID 3031093): January daily mean -7.6 C, July 16.9 C, 445.4 mm precipitation, 138.7 cm snowfall. Sunshine is not published in the 1991-2020 set; 2,396.3 hours is from the 1981-2010 normals for the same station. Chinook winds bring abrupt winter thaws.
Hazards: Summer hail is the costliest recurring hazard (major storms in 2020 and 2024), the Bow and Elbow rivers flooded the core in June 2013, wildfire smoke now degrades air quality most summers, and hard cold snaps reach below -30 C.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (station USW00012960), inside the city about 23 miles north of downtown and the station where the National Weather Service keeps Houston's official record: January mean 53.8F, July mean 85.1F, annual mean 70.5F, 51.84 in of precipitation, 0.1 in of snow. August is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree at 85.2F, with a mean high of 94.9F; July's mean high is 94.5F and January's mean low is 43.7F. June (6.00 in) and October (5.46 in) are the wettest months and February (2.97 in) the driest, and rain is spread through the year with no dry season. The normals count 111.3 days a year at 90F or above, 7.0 at 100F or above and 10.1 nights at or below freezing. William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and nearer the Gulf, averages 55.0F in January and 84.8F in July with 55.62 in of rain, 2.9 days at 100F or above and 4.2 nights at or below freezing; its normals give no snowfall. Converted here to 12.1 C, 29.5 C, 1,317 mm and 0.3 cm. That precipitation is the most of any Texas city this site compares, 344 mm more than Dallas's at Love Field. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,578 hours, 59% of possible, and 90 clear days), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flooding is the defining hazard, from hurricanes, tropical storms and stalled rain alike. Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas as a category 4 storm on 25 August 2017 and then stalled inland, and over four days 26 to 47 in (660 to 1,204 mm) of rain fell across Harris County, a maximum of 47.4 in at Clear Creek and I-45 and an average of 33.7 in (856 mm) over the county's 1,777 square miles, about 1 trillion gallons. The Harris County Flood Control District counted 154,170 homes flooded in the county, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance, 60,049 people rescued by government crews and 36 flood deaths in the county; statewide Harvey killed 68 people directly, the most from a landfalling hurricane in Texas since 1919. Bush Intercontinental recorded 31.26 in (794 mm) from 25 to 29 August, including 16.07 in (408 mm) on the 27th, the wettest day in its record since 1969, and Hobby 37.01 in (940 mm). NOAA puts Harvey's cost at $125 billion ($160 billion in 2024 dollars, second only to Katrina on its list). Harvey came after others: Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001 ($8.5 billion, 43 deaths), Hurricane Ike in September 2008 ($30.0 billion, 112 deaths), the Tax Day flood of 17 and 18 April 2016 ($2.7 billion, 8 deaths, with 9.92 in at Bush Intercontinental on the 18th) and Tropical Storm Imelda in September 2019 ($5.0 billion, 5 deaths). Wind and the power grid are the second hazard. On 16 May 2024 a derecho cut power to more than 900,000 customers in the Houston area and killed 8 people, and on 8 July 2024 Hurricane Beryl came ashore near Matagorda as a category 1 storm with 80 kt (92 mph) winds and crossed the western side of the metro, gusting to 72 kt (83 mph) at Bush Intercontinental and dropping 14.88 in (378 mm) at a gauge in western Houston. More than 2.2 million customers in the region lost power that afternoon (the National Hurricane Center cites media reports of 2.7 million across southeastern Texas), many of them for days in July heat. The NHC counted 11 direct deaths in Texas and 34 indirect ones, 14 of them from heat as the power stayed off, and NOAA puts the damage at $7.2 billion. Heat is the constant. The normals give only 7.0 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), far fewer than Dallas's 22.4, but 111.3 at or above 90F. Bush Intercontinental's record is 46 days of 100F in 2011, including 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August, and 45 in 2023, and its highest reading is 109F (42.8 C), on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023; 2026 had 9 such days through 21 September. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri brought 1.0 in (2.5 cm) of snow to Bush Intercontinental on 15 February 2021 and a low of 13F (-10.6 C) on the 16th, above the station's record of 7F (-13.9 C) on 23 December 1989. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February and about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst; Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 43 of them in Harris County, more than in any other county. On 20 and 21 January 2025 a Gulf Coast snowstorm left 1.4 in (3.6 cm) at the airport and a low of 20F (-6.7 C) on the 22nd.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $98,000 CAD (2020) | $64,361 USD (2024) | Not directly comparable |
| Unemployment rate Statistics Canada and the Bureau of Labor Statistics define unemployment slightly differently; the Canadian measure runs about a point higher on the same labour market. | 6.8% (July 2026) | 5.1% (July 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 5% | 8.25% | Calgary |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 48% | 37% | Houston |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $21,733 CAD | $13,449 USD | Not directly comparable |
Calgary's unemployment rate has run above the national rate through 2025 and 2026 even as Alberta posted the largest proportional year-over-year employment gain among provinces (+91,000, +3.5%) to July 2026; fast in-migration keeps the labour force growing faster than hiring.
Main sectors: Oil and gas head offices and energy services, Finance, engineering and professional services, Logistics and distribution (YYC cargo, rail, inland port), Technology and agri-food, Health care and education.
Alberta has no provincial sales tax, no payroll tax and no land transfer tax; Calgary levies municipal property tax on assessed value.
BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 44,700 or 1.3% on the year. Construction grew fastest (+5.5%, to 269,000), then professional and business services (+2.6%, to 581,300) and government (+1.9%), with education and health services and leisure and hospitality both up 1.3%, while information (-5.9%), financial activities (-1.2%), mining and logging (-0.5%, to 73,300) and manufacturing (-0.2%, to 240,400) shrank. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 695,600 jobs, unchanged on the year. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48264200000000001) was 3,510,100 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. The Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region on the 2026 list, tied with Chicago for second among US metros behind New York and ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth's 24, with a 28th due when Expand Energy moves to Spring; ExxonMobil (No. 9) and Chevron (No. 21) lead them. Port Houston calls the Houston Ship Channel complex the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage (309.5 million tons in 2023, USACE) and the fifth-ranked US container port by TEUs.
Main sectors: Energy: oil and gas producers, refiners, pipelines and oilfield services (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, Enterprise Products Partners, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Cheniere Energy), Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector (the Port of Houston, the nation's largest port by waterborne tonnage; Sysco; United Airlines at Bush Intercontinental; CenterPoint Energy, NRG Energy), Professional and business services, including engineering and construction (KBR, Quanta Services, Comfort Systems USA, Waste Management), Health care and life sciences (the Texas Medical Center, Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital), Petrochemicals and advanced manufacturing along the Houston Ship Channel (Westlake, NOV).
Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax. The City of Houston's own rate for tax year 2025 is 51.919 cents per $100 of taxable value, left unchanged by an 11-3 council vote on 15 October 2025 although the city controller warned it would open a $53 million gap in the $7 billion fiscal 2026 budget; the budget committee chair, who voted against, said there was still room under both the state's and the city's own revenue caps. On 10 June 2026 the council passed a $7.5 billion budget for fiscal 2027 by 15 to 1, closing a projected deficit of more than $200 million with no increase in the property tax rate and a new $5 monthly solid waste fee on residential water bills. The rate for tax year 2026 had not been published in anything fetched. The county, school district, METRO and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Calgary | Houston | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Calgary Transit (CTrain light rail Red and Blue lines, MAX bus rapid transit, bus network); Green Line LRT under construction | METRO buses (more than 80 local routes plus Park & Ride commuter buses on the HOV and HOT lanes), three METRORail light rail lines on 22.7 miles of track (the Red Line, opened in 2004, and the Green and Purple lines, opened in 2015), the Silver Line bus rapid transit in Uptown, METRO curb2curb on-demand service and METROLift paratransit, across a service area of about 1,300 square miles | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 8.8% (2021) | 3.4% (2024) | Calgary |
| Walk or cycle to work | 5.1% (2021) | 2.9% (2024) | Calgary |
| Airport | Calgary International Airport, YYC, 19.4 million passengers in 2025 (record; 18.9 million in 2024), 108 destinations | George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), about 23 miles north of downtown and a hub for United Airlines, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the 48.4 million of 2024 (FAA figures as cited by Wikipedia; Houston Airports gave no per-airport total for 2025 in anything fetched), and a record 12.4 million international passengers, 2.5% more than in 2024. William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and an operating base for Southwest Airlines, handled 13,943,759, 4.5% fewer than 2024's 14.6 million; it kept Skytrax's 5-star rating for a fifth year, the only one in North America. Houston Airports puts the two together at 62 million passengers in 2025, below the record 63.1 million of 2024, and a record 562,809 metric tons of air cargo. | Not directly comparable |
93.1 million trips in 2025 under the new automated passenger counting method, versus 93.7 million restated for 2024 (RouteAhead Annual Status Report 2025, May 7, 2026). Earlier published totals used a different method and are not comparable.
METRO carried 77,996,900 unlinked trips in 2025, 63,315,900 of them by bus and 12,651,100 on light rail, and about 251,800 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 37,700 of them on light rail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). METRO's own count for fiscal 2025 is 76.3 million boardings on bus and METRORail, 23.3 million riders on its HOV and HOT lanes and 1.9 million METROLift trips. The authority serves the City of Houston, much of unincorporated Harris County and 14 smaller cities, and is paid for by a 1% sales tax that voters created in 1978. Expansion has stalled: voters approved the METRONext plan in November 2019, including 16 miles of light rail extensions and 75 miles of bus rapid transit, but in June 2024 METRO indefinitely postponed the University Line, once the plan's cornerstone, and in February 2025 it adopted METRONow, which puts safety, cleanliness and reliability of the existing service first.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is paid for through the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan, which is free at the point of use for residents and covers physician and hospital services but not most prescriptions, dental or vision, so employer plans matter; the province split Alberta Health Services into separate acute care, primary care and continuing care agencies in 2024 and 2025, and finding a family doctor and waiting for specialists and elective surgery are the common complaints. Major hospitals are Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre, Rockyview General, South Health Campus and Alberta Children's Hospital.
Education
The University of Calgary is the city's research university, with Mount Royal University, SAIT and Bow Valley College alongside it. K-12 is run by two publicly funded boards, the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District, plus francophone boards and a sizeable provincially funded charter school sector; enrolment growth has outrun school construction in the newer suburbs.
Living there
Calgary is a spread-out, car-oriented city of single-family suburbs around a compact office core that still has high vacancy from the oil downturn, with the Rockies an hour west and a river-path network that people actually use. Winters are long but sunny and broken by chinooks, and the economy and housing market both swing with oil prices and with the in-migration surges that have made it one of Canada's fastest-growing metros since 2022.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Houston's rate was 23.3% (553,576 of 2,370,907), Harris County's 20.8% and the metro's 18.4%. The Texas Medical Center, south of downtown, calls itself the largest medical complex in the world: by its own count 10,000 patient beds, more than 120,000 employees, 10 million patient encounters and 750,000 emergency visits a year, and among its members the world's largest children's hospital and largest cancer hospital (Texas Children's and MD Anderson). Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital in the medical center, licensed for 402 beds, is the county's public Level I trauma center and treats more than 80,000 emergency patients a year; in May 2024 Harris Health broke ground on a $1.6 billion, 12-story hospital on its Lyndon B. Johnson campus in northeast Houston, due to open in late 2028 as the first Level I trauma center in the county outside the medical center. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas, has been run by a state-appointed board and superintendent, Mike Miles, since the Texas Education Agency took it over in 2023. It counted 168,810 students on its official snapshot of 31 October 2025, down 4.5% from 176,727 a year earlier, and just over 155,600 on 4 September 2026, nearly 10,000 fewer than in September 2025, and it is cutting staff and campus budgets as a result (Houston Chronicle). The Texas Tribune counts 21,000 students lost since the takeover began, a faster decline than any of its urban peers, and about $190 million in state funding with them. Under Miles the number of F-rated campuses fell from 56 to five, but voters rejected a $4.4 billion bond in 2024, the largest Texas school bond ever to fail, and in August 2026 Miles said the official end of the takeover may come at the end of the 2026-27 year. The University of Houston (48,950 students in fall 2025) and Rice University (8,880 in fall 2024) are both inside the city, and Houston Community College renamed itself Houston City College in 2025.
Living there
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country and the energy capital of its fifth-largest metro, which added 126,720 people in 2024-25, more than any other. It spreads into four counties with 22.7 miles of light rail near the core, and 68.7% of its workers drive alone, though its 3.4% transit share is the highest of the Texas cities this site compares. Water is its hazard: Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017, most of them outside the mapped floodplain, and Beryl left more than two million customers without power in July heat in 2024. Summer is long and humid rather than extreme, with far fewer 100F days than Dallas but 111 days a year at 90F or above and 1,317 mm of rain. Texas takes no income tax, 23.3% of the city's residents have no health insurance, and the Texas Medical Center, the largest in the world by its own count, sits a few miles south of downtown. The open questions are fiscal and civic: the council held the property tax rate flat in October 2025 against its controller's warning and passed a fiscal 2027 budget that closes a deficit of more than $200 million without raising it, METRO has shelved the University Line that was once the cornerstone of its expansion plan, and Houston ISD, under state control since 2023, began 2026-27 with nearly 10,000 fewer students than the year before.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Calgary's figures are in Canadian dollars and Houston's in US dollars, so each is read against local pay. Calgary's benchmark was $569,200 CAD in July 2026 on the MLS Home Price Index, 5.8 times the city's 2020 median household income of $98,000 CAD. Houston's price is the Houston Association of Realtors' median sale price of single-family houses across Greater Houston, $330,000 USD in August 2026, 1.5% below a year earlier. It is the region's figure, because the city's own could not be retrieved, and it is about 5.1 times the City of Houston's 2024 median of $64,361 USD; Zillow's model of a typical home inside the city is lower, at $261,740. At 20% down, Calgary's loan at 4.34% costs $2,480 CAD a month over 25 years, and Houston's $264,000 loan at Freddie Mac's 7.03% of 24 September 2026 about $1,762 USD over 30. Property tax is 0.665% of Calgary's benchmark, $3,785 CAD a year, against $4,391 USD from the eight taxing units on a Harris County address in the City and Houston ISD, an effective 1.33% with a homestead and $7,013 without. Insurance is budgeted at $210 CAD and $450 USD a month, and the Houston figure buys no flood cover. The owners carry about $3,005 CAD and $2,578 USD, roughly 37% and 48% of local median income. A two-bedroom averaged $1,908 CAD in October 2025, and Houston's median two-bedroom rent was $1,327 USD in September 2026. Texas forbids rent control by statute outside a declared disaster, and Alberta allows one increase a year of any size.
Only homicide crosses the border intact. Statistics Canada put the Calgary metro's 2025 Crime Severity Index at 61.7, below the national 75.0; American cities have no equivalent. The Calgary Police Service counted 1,086 violent victims per 100,000 in 2025, a count that includes common assault and uttering threats. Houston's 890 per 100,000 is 21,345 offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer, divided by the 2025 Census estimate of 2,397,315, used because the Houston Police Department's own total on those definitions could not be rebuilt. Property crime, 3,328 incidents per 100,000 against 3,854 offenses, has the same problem. Homicide does not. Calgary recorded 15 in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and its lowest count in ten years. Houston recorded 270 in the federal file, about 11.3 per 100,000, and 272 on HPD's own count, against 329 and 331 in 2024. The direction on the rest favors Houston, where FBI-definition violent offenses dropped 20% in 2025 and 26% in four years, while Calgary's police-counted violence increased 4% on assaults. The Houston counts were read on 30 September 2026 and can still be revised.
Houston has the mild winter and Calgary the mild summer. January averages 12.1 C at Bush Intercontinental and -7.6 C at Calgary's airport, where snaps drop below -30 C and chinooks break them. July averages 29.5 C and humid in Houston against 16.9 C and dry in Calgary. Rain is the larger difference, 1,317 mm a year in Houston, spread through every month, against 445.4 mm, while snow is a season in Calgary at 138.7 cm and a rarity in Houston at 0.3 cm. Sunshine, on older series, is 2,578 hours against 2,396.3. Houston's normals count only 7.0 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) but 111.3 at or above 32.2 C (90F). Water is its defining hazard: Hurricane Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in August 2017, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain, and Hurricane Beryl left more than 2.2 million customers in the region without power in July 2024 heat. Hard cold is rare and badly handled: Winter Storm Uri brought 13F (-10.6 C) to Bush Intercontinental in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid, and Harris County counted 43 of the state's 246 deaths. Calgary's hazards are hail, with major storms in 2020 and 2024, the June 2013 flood and wildfire smoke.
Both cities run on oil and gas, at very different scale. The Houston metro counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs in August 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier, and the region holds 27 Fortune 500 headquarters, led by ExxonMobil and Chevron, beside the Port of Houston and the Texas Medical Center. Its unemployment rate was 5.1% in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted and preliminary, because BLS publishes no adjusted series for the metro; the US was 4.4% on the same basis. The Calgary metro's was 6.8% on a three-month average, second highest among large Canadian metros, even though Alberta added 91,000 jobs in the year to July 2026: in-migration has grown the labor force faster than employers hire. The two rates are not built the same way, so the gap is approximate. Median household income was $98,000 CAD in Calgary in 2020 and $64,361 USD in the City of Houston in 2024, with the metro at $81,417. Alberta levies a provincial income tax, so $100,000 pays about $21,733 CAD, 21.7% before CPP and EI. Texas levies none, so the same salary pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025, and property tax carries the load instead: $4,391 a year on the Greater Houston median against $3,785 CAD on Calgary's benchmark. Sales tax is 8.25% against the 5% GST, and the top combined marginal rate 37% against 48%.
Transit favors Calgary, though Houston's commuters use theirs more than those of any other Texas city this site compares. In the 2021 census 8.8% of Calgary commuters took transit and 5.1% walked or cycled, counted in a pandemic month, and the Labour Force Survey put the metro at 12.3% in May 2024. In Houston 3.4% of workers commuted by transit in 2024, 2.9% walked or cycled and 68.7% drove alone. METRO runs more than 80 local bus routes, Park & Ride commuter buses on the HOV lanes and three METRORail lines on 22.7 miles of track; it carried 77,996,900 trips in 2025, 12,651,100 of them on light rail. Calgary Transit carried 93.1 million on two CTrain lines, MAX bus rapid transit and buses, counted by a new automated method, with the Green Line under construction. Houston's own expansion has stalled: voters approved 16 miles of light rail extensions in 2019, but METRO postponed the University Line indefinitely in June 2024 and in February 2025 adopted a plan that puts the existing service first. Flying is Houston's by a wide margin. Bush Intercontinental, a United hub, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, a record 12.4 million of them international, and Hobby 13,943,759, against 19.4 million at YYC.
Health care is the difference a household meets every week. In Calgary the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan pays for physician and hospital care with nothing due at the point of use and leaves most prescriptions, dental and vision to employer plans; the standing complaints are finding a family doctor and waiting for specialists and elective surgery. In Houston care is bought through an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, and Texas is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid. It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Houston's was 23.3%. The Texas Medical Center south of downtown calls itself the largest medical complex in the world, with MD Anderson and Texas Children's among its members, and Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital there is the county's public Level I trauma center. This site verified no wait time for either city. Calgary has two publicly funded school boards, francophone boards and a provincially funded charter sector, with enrollment outrunning construction in the newer suburbs. Houston ISD, the largest district in Texas, has been run by a state-appointed board since 2023 and began 2026-27 with just over 155,600 students, nearly 10,000 fewer than a year earlier.
What people underestimate is what the Houston carry leaves out. The $450 insurance budget buys no flood cover, because a homeowners policy does not pay for rising water, and 64% of the Harris County homes Harvey flooded had no flood insurance. The $4,391 tax bill describes one kind of address, in Harris County, the City and Houston ISD with no municipal utility district; the appraisal district lists more than 400 of those at a median of about 0.54 per $100, and newer subdivisions on the city's edges often pay one. The city has no zoning, so what the lot next door can become is set by the subdivision's deed restrictions. The price, again, is the region's: the Houston metro added 126,720 people in 2024-25, more than any other in the country, while Harris County lost 43,377 more residents to the rest of the country than it gained and grew anyway on births and international arrivals. Calgary's city limits held 1,306,784 at the 2021 census, most of a metro of 1,836,012; Houston's held 2,397,315 in 2025. The 7.03% holds for thirty years, while Calgary's 4.34% renews after five, so part of Calgary's lighter carry is a bet on the renewal; at 6.67%, the August rate this site's other American cities were written at, the Houston carry would be about $2,514.
Better here
- There were 15 homicides in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and a ten-year low, against 270 in Houston at about 11.3.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,005 CAD a month on the July 2026 benchmark, roughly 37% of the city's 2020 median household income, against about 48% on the Greater Houston median.
- The Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan covers physician and hospital care with nothing due at the point of use, where 23.3% of Houston residents had no health insurance in 2024.
- Transit carried 8.8% of commuters in the 2021 census and 93.1 million trips in 2025, against 3.4% in 2024 and 77,996,900 trips on METRO.
- July averages 16.9 C and dry on the 1991-2020 normals, with 445.4 mm of precipitation a year, against 29.5 C and 1,317 mm in Houston, where the normals count 111.3 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F).
- There is no hurricane season, where Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017 and Beryl left more than 2.2 million customers in the Houston region without power in 2024.
Worse here
- Metro unemployment was 6.8% in July 2026, second highest among large Canadian metros, against 5.1% in the Houston metro on an unadjusted count the same month.
- January averages -7.6 C on a 138.7 cm snow normal for 1991-2020, with cold snaps below -30 C, against 12.1 C and 0.3 cm in Houston.
- Income tax takes about $21,733 CAD of $100,000 for 2025, 21.7%, where Texas levies none and the federal bill is $13,449 USD, and the top combined rate is 48% against 37%.
- Summer hail did major damage in 2020 and 2024, the Bow and the Elbow flooded the core in June 2013, and wildfire smoke degrades the air most summers.
- The 4.34% mortgage rate, the Bank of Canada's May 2026 figure, is fixed for a five-year term and then renews, where a Houston loan at 7.03% of 24 September 2026 holds for thirty years.
- YYC handled 19.4 million passengers in 2025, against 48,131,213 at Bush Intercontinental and 13,943,759 at Hobby.
Choose Calgary if
- you want health coverage that comes with residency rather than with an employer, a premium or a deductible
- you would rather have a dry 16.9 C July and a cold winter than a humid 29.5 C July in a city that floods
- you want a house that costs about 37% of local median income to hold rather than about 48%, with no flood policy to add
- you want a homicide rate about a tenth of Houston's and a transit system that more commuters use
The Calgary guide · Neighbourhoods · Calgary rent vs buy · Calgary mortgage calculator
Better here
- Metro unemployment was 5.1% in July 2026, not seasonally adjusted, against 6.8% in the Calgary metro, on 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs in August growing 1.3% on the year.
- Texas levies no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 USD in federal tax for 2025 and $13,170 for 2026, against about $21,733 CAD in Calgary.
- January averages 12.1 C with 0.3 cm of snow a year on the 1991-2020 normals, against -7.6 C and 138.7 cm in Calgary.
- Bush Intercontinental handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025 and Hobby another 13,943,759, against 19.4 million at YYC.
- Violent offenses on the FBI's definitions dropped 20% in 2025 to 21,345, about 890 per 100,000, and 26% over four years, and homicides fell from 329 to 270.
- The region counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters on the 2026 list, and the Texas Medical Center calls itself the largest medical complex in the world.
Worse here
- There were 270 homicides in 2025, about 11.3 per 100,000, against 15 and about 1.0 in Calgary.
- Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,578 USD a month on the Greater Houston single-family median, roughly 48% of the city's 2024 median household income against 37% in Calgary, before any flood policy.
- Property tax on the regional median is $4,391 a year for the 2025 tax year with a homestead, an effective 1.33%, and $7,013 without one, and a municipal utility district can add to it.
- Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, the City of Houston's was 23.3%, and in August 2026 Texas was one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid.
- Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in August 2017, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain, and 1,317 mm of rain falls in an average year.
- Home insurance is budgeted at $450 a month against $210 CAD in Calgary, and it does not cover rising water, which takes a separate flood policy.
Choose Houston if
- you work in energy, engineering or medicine and want a metro of 3.5 million jobs and 27 Fortune 500 headquarters
- you fly often enough that two airports handling about 62 million passengers in 2025 change how you travel
- you want a 12.1 C January and can live with a humid summer, a hurricane season and a flood policy
- you have employer health insurance you trust and would rather pay property tax on a house than provincial income tax on a salary
The Houston guide · Neighborhoods · Houston rent vs buy · Houston mortgage calculator
Calgary or Houston, in short
Is Calgary or Houston cheaper to live in?
Calgary, once each bill is held against its own city's pay, because the currencies do not convert here. A Calgary owner pays about $3,005 CAD a month on mortgage, property tax and insurance, roughly 37% of the 2020 median household income of $98,000 CAD, on a benchmark 5.8 times that income. A Houston owner pays about $2,578 USD on the Greater Houston single-family median of $330,000, roughly 48% of the City of Houston's 2024 median of $64,361 USD; the price is the region's and the income the city's, which is the only pairing the published figures allow. The mortgage rate is 7.03% against 4.34%, and the Houston property tax is $4,391 a year with a homestead against $3,785 CAD, before any flood policy or utility district. Houston takes less income tax, $13,449 USD on $100,000 for 2025 against about $21,733 CAD, and more sales tax, 8.25% against 5%. Renting is close: a two-bedroom averaged $1,908 CAD in Calgary in October 2025 and had a median of $1,327 USD in Houston in September 2026, about 23% and 25% of each city's median household income.
Is Calgary or Houston safer?
Calgary, on homicide, the one measure that crosses the border. Calgary recorded 15 homicides in 2025, about 1.0 per 100,000 and its lowest count in ten years; Houston recorded 270 in the FBI's file, about 11.3 per 100,000, and 272 on its police department's own count, against 329 and 331 in 2024. The other rates are different instruments. The Calgary Police Service's 1,086 violent victims per 100,000 counts victims and includes common assault and uttering threats, while the Houston figure of 890 per 100,000 is offenses of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault, divided by the Census estimate and still open to revision. Property crime, 3,328 incidents per 100,000 against 3,854 offenses, is defined differently as well. Houston's violent offenses dropped 20% in 2025; Calgary's police-counted violence increased 4%.
Which has the better climate, Calgary or Houston?
Houston has the easier winter and Calgary the easier summer. January averages 12.1 C in Houston with 0.3 cm of snow a year, against -7.6 C and 138.7 cm in Calgary, where snaps reach below -30 C though chinooks break them. July reverses it: 29.5 C and humid at Bush Intercontinental, with 111.3 days a year at or above 32.2 C (90F) on the normals, against 16.9 C and dry in Calgary. Houston is about three times as wet, 1,317 mm a year against 445.4, and a little sunnier on the older records, 2,578 hours against 2,396.3. Houston's hazards are water and wind: Harvey in 2017, Beryl in 2024, and the rare hard freeze, like February 2021, when ERCOT cut power across the state grid. Calgary's are hail, the 2013 flood and wildfire smoke most summers.
What happens to my health care if I move from Calgary to Houston?
It stops being a public plan and becomes a purchase. In Calgary the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan pays for physician and hospital care with nothing due at the point of use, and an employer plan matters for prescriptions, dental and vision. In Houston you need an employer or marketplace plan, Medicare or Medicaid, with the premium, deductible and copay that come with it, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid. Texas had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%, and the City of Houston 23.3%. What is on offer to the insured is large: the Texas Medical Center counts 10,000 patient beds by its own measure, and Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital is the county's public Level I trauma center. This site did not verify a wait time for either city; Calgary's known problems are finding a family doctor and elective surgery queues.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Calgary, City (CY), Alberta · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Population estimates, July 1, by census metropolitan area and census agglomeration, 2021 boundaries (table 17-10-0148-01) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Canada's population estimates: Subprovincial areas, 2025 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Five-year growth, character
- Police-reported Crime Severity Index and crime rate, by census metropolitan area, 2025 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- 2025 Crime Report, Report to Calgary Police Commission · Calgary Police Service · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, City population
- Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020, Calgary Int'l A · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010, Calgary Int'l A · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours
- Labour Force Survey, July 2026 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Labour market
- Calgary unemployment rate dropped in July, but remains among highest in Canada · CBC News · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Alberta tax overview · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes
- Alberta 2025 & 2026 Tax Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Canada 2025 & 2026 Tax Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Income tax on $100,000
- RouteAhead Annual Status Report 2025 (IP2026-0142, Attachment 2) · City of Calgary, Calgary Transit · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership, Transit system
- From home to work: Commuting in Canada's cities, May 2024 · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share
- YYC Calgary International Airport welcomed 19.4 million passengers in 2025 · Calgary Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Calgary victim's family not celebrating Calgary's 10-year low homicide rate · CP24 / CTV News · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Data about Calgary's population · City of Calgary · retrieved Supports: City population, Median household income
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Character
- Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Houston Police Department (TXHPD0000): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Houston homicides drop 17% in 2025, as experts say multiple factors drive national trend · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Crime continues downward surge in 2025 in Houston and nationwide (Major Cities Chiefs Association year-end survey) · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012960 Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 53.8F, July 85.1F and August 85.2F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.5F, precipitation 51.84 in, snowfall 0.1 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012918 Houston William P. Hobby Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (USW00012960), 1969-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 31.26 in from 25 to 29 August 2017 and 16.07 in on 27 August 2017, 9.92 in on 18 April 2016, 46 days at or above 100F in 2011 and 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August 2011, 45 in 2023, 9 in 2026 through 21 September, 109F on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023, 1.0 in of snow on 15 February 2021 and 13F on 16 February 2021, 7F on 23 December 1989, 1.4 in of snow on 20 and 21 January 2025 and 20F on 22 January 2025
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), 1930-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 37.01 in from 25 to 29 August 2017
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals
- Weather and Climate Billion-Dollar Disasters to affect the U.S. from 1980-2024 (events list) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Hurricane Harvey & Its Impacts on Southeast Texas (August 25-29, 2017) · National Weather Service, Houston/Galveston · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Immediate Flood Report, Final Report: Hurricane Harvey, 2017 · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Beryl (AL022024) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Houston power outages: Hurricane Beryl plunges 2.2 million into the dark · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- Public Utility Commission releases investigative report on CenterPoint's response to Hurricane Beryl · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Harris County, Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA (LAUMT482642000000003), Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA: total nonfarm (SMU48264200000000001, SMS48264200000000001) and supersectors (SMU4826420xx00000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Fortune 500 Companies (Houston ranks second among US metro areas in Fortune 500 headquarters) · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- 27 Houston companies make Fortune 500 for 2026, led by energy giants · CultureMap Houston (InnovationMap) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Port Houston Statistics · Port Houston · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Houston MTA, effective October 1, 1978) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Houston won't raise property tax rate despite budget concerns · The Bond Buyer · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- City of Houston passes Whitmire's $7.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- About METRO · Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, through Template:American transit ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- Houston Airports closes 2025 with strong international growth, record cargo performance · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports earns global honors as record travel powers momentum · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports shatters passenger record with 63.1 million travelers in 2024 · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, United Airlines hub) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- William P. Hobby Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About Us (TMC at a Glance) · Texas Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Harris Health System Breaks Ground on Northeast Houston Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- HISD cuts staff, campus budgets after enrollment drops nearly 10,000 from last September · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- HISD reports about 168,800 students enrolled in 2025-26 school year, a loss of 4.5% · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- Mike Miles expects HISD's state takeover to end after this school year · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- High costs, dwindling enrollment: Is Houston ISD's playbook under takeover sustainable? · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- University of Houston (fall 2025 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Rice University (fall 2024 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Houston City College (formerly Houston Community College, 1971-2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- City of Calgary Monthly Statistics Package, July 2026 · Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB®) · retrieved Supports: Benchmark price of $569,200, Benchmark prices by property type
- Rental Market Survey: Calgary, average rent by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: One-bedroom average rent of $1,581, Two-bedroom average rent of $1,908
- Current property tax rates · City of Calgary · retrieved Supports: 2026 municipal residential rate, 2026 provincial education rate
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- CMHC revises homeowner mortgage loan insurance premiums · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: The 20 basis point surcharge on a 30-year insured amortization
- Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
- Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
- Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
- How much will my home really cost? · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Closing costs of 1.5% to 4% of the purchase price, Home inspection and appraisal ranges
- Land Titles and Surveys common documents fee schedule · Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction, Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Transfer registration fee, Mortgage registration fee
- During a tenancy: rent increases · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: No cap on rent increases, 365-day frequency limit, Notice periods
- Alberta's tax advantage · Government of Alberta · retrieved Supports: Alberta levies no land transfer tax
- HAR.com reports more choices and steady prices in Houston's August housing market · My Neighborhood News, republishing the Houston Association of REALTORS' August 2026 release · retrieved Supports: 7,100 single-family sales in Greater Houston in August 2026, down 11.5% from August 2025, A median single-family sale price of $330,000, down 1.5% or $5,000 from August 2025, and an average of $426,760, up 1.2%, A median of $330,000 for existing single-family homes, down 2.9%, 38,947 active single-family listings and a 5.3-month supply, 405 townhouse and condominium sales, unchanged, at a median of $195,000, down 7.1%, and an 8.8-month supply
- Greater Houston area home sales on the decline · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: From the August 2026 monthly housing update of the Houston Association of Realtors, published 16 September 2026, Single-family sales down 11.5% and the median single-family price down $5,000 to $330,000
- Monthly update: home sales, August 2026 · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: 59,843 single-family sales in the region year to date through August 2026, according to the Houston Association of Realtors, A 12-month average of the median MLS sale price of roughly $331,000 in August 2026, down about one percent on a year earlier
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $261,740 for the city of Houston (region 39051) in August 2026, $267,880 in August 2025, so a fall of 2.3% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $267,956 in the city of Houston in August 2026, against $274,277 a year earlier, down 2.3%, A typical condominium value of $131,763 in the same month, against $140,224, down 6.0%, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
- Houston Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $1,120 for a one-bedroom and $1,327 for a two-bedroom in the city of Houston, and $1,269 across all bedroom sizes, Rents flat over September and down 2.3% over the past 12 months, A metro-wide median of $1,335, 5.0% above the city's
- Apartments for rent in Houston, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,299 and up for a studio, $1,309 and up for one bedroom, $1,630 and up for two, and $2,102 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,323 for one bedroom, $1,573 for two and $2,116 for three, as gross rents including utilities
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,542 for the city of Houston in August 2026, against $1,544 a year earlier, down 0.13%
- Jurisdictions: homestead exemptions and tax rates · Harris Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Harris County 0.380960, Harris County Flood Control District 0.049660, Harris County Port of Houston Authority 0.005900, Harris County Hospital District 0.187610, Harris County Department of Education 0.004798, City of Houston 0.519190, Houston ISD 0.878300, Houston City College 0.098802, Homestead exemptions of 20% for every one of those units except Houston City College, which grants 17%, and a flat $140,000 plus 20% for Houston ISD, No 2026 rate yet for any of the eight, from the table's data at https://hcad.org/actions/hcad-module/default/jurisdictions, More than 400 active utility districts in the appraisal district's list, at a median 2025 rate of about 0.54 per $100
- Tax rates · Harris County Tax Office · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 adopted rates with their maintenance and operations and debt parts: Harris County 0.33696 and 0.044, the Flood Control District 0.03826 and 0.0114, the Hospital District 0.17876 and 0.00885, the City of Houston 0.40326 and 0.11593, Houston ISD 0.7116 and 0.1667, and the Port's whole rate as debt, The City of Houston's rate at 0.51919 for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 tax years, 2026 rates already listed for Harris County (0.4175), the Flood Control District (0.05266), the Hospital District (0.19528) and the Port (0.00603), and none yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college
- FY2027 adopted budget: General Fund revenues · City of Houston Finance Department · retrieved Supports: Taxable values within the City set by the Harris, Montgomery or Fort Bend central appraisal district, A City tax rate of 51.919 cents per $100 for tax year 2025, and an estimate of the same for 2026, Proposition 1 of November 2004 capping the annual increase in total property tax revenue at the lower of inflation plus population growth or 4.5%, and Proposition H of November 2006 raising the limit by $90 million, Tax bills sent by the Harris County Tax Office around mid-November and due by 31 January
- FY2027 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston has operated for more than a decade under two revenue caps, which forced a nearly 20% reduction in the tax rate
- FY2026 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: No other large Texas city is burdened by both a locally imposed revenue cap and the state cap or must fund solid waste operations without dedicated revenues
- Development regulations · City of Houston Planning and Development Department · retrieved Supports: The City of Houston does not have zoning, and its codes do not address land use, Development governed by ordinance codes on how property can be subdivided, chiefly Chapter 42, within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction
- Deed restrictions · City of Houston Legal Department · retrieved Supports: The City's authority to enforce residential deed restrictions under Chapter 212 of the Local Government Code and sections 10-551 through 10-555 of the City Code
- Harris County's flooding history · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: A major flood somewhere in Harris County about every two years, mostly in areas developed before current regulations, More flood insurance funds paid in Harris County than in any other community in the National Flood Insurance Program
- Hurricane Harvey frequently asked questions · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Flooding outside the FEMA mapped floodplain, from ponding and overland sheet flow when rainfall overwhelms street drainage, The mapped floodplain is only an estimate of where flooding is predicted to occur from a bayou or creek, The City of Houston as one of the local floodplain administrators for the National Flood Insurance Program
- Home, flood, wind: which policies do you need? · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Most home policies do not cover floods; a flood policy covers damage from rising water
- Drainage utility charge FAQs · City of Houston, Rebuild Houston · retrieved Supports: A residential rate of $0.032 per square foot of impervious surface a year behind a curb and gutter and $0.026 on an open ditch, $48.00 a year, $4.00 a month, on 1,500 square feet behind a curb and gutter
- Valuing property: limitation on residence homestead value increases · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year once the owner has qualified in the preceding and current year
- Property tax protests and appeals · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A protest deadline of 15 May or 30 days after the appraisal district mails the notice of appraised value, whichever is later
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year for 2025, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Paid homeowners losses in 2024 of $4.93 billion from hail and $2.21 billion from wind
- How much is homeowners insurance in Houston, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $5,391 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, Standard home insurance policies generally exclude flood damage
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $9,095 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston renters premium of $167 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Houston city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $144 among Houston owner-occupied units that pay one, 176,568 of 385,594 owner-occupied units, or 45.8%, paying such a fee, and 31,837 paying $500 or more a month
- Homebuyer Assistance Program · City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department · retrieved Supports: Up to $75,000 for income-qualified first-time homebuyers, or buyers who have not owned a home in the last three years, at or below 80% of area median income, The home must pay taxes to the City of Houston, A no-interest forgivable loan secured by a lien, fulfilled if the buyer lives in the home for eight years, with a portion repaid on a sale or move before then, No maximum home price, and less than $50,000 in liquid assets
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 640.819 square miles and a water area of 31.222 square miles for Houston city
- About Houston: education · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston ISD serves 312 square miles with 288 schools
- Local schools · City of Houston Mayor's Office of Education · retrieved Supports: Public school districts in the Houston area including Aldine, Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Fort Bend, Houston, Humble, Katy, Klein, Spring and Spring Branch, and North Forest annexed by Houston ISD in 2013
- 2025 was a year of transformation and change for HCC · Houston City College · retrieved Supports: The college publishing under the name Houston City College