Yeah, I guess I'm not counting the "buying" of a house as much towards CoL, renting is still fairly inexpensive, assuming you don't want a "luxury apartment," b

Yeah, I guess I'm not counting the "buying" of a house as much towards CoL, renting is still fairly inexpensive, assuming you don't want a "luxury apartment," but gas prices (still paying less than $3/gal in my neighborhood), food prices, utilities (let's not talk about the water bill!) & etc. "as compared to other major cities." That last part is important =) You'll live a lot cheaper in Luling than Houston, but outside of great barbecue, there isn't much going on there. The inner loop is really expensive for housing stock, definitely, and even it has nothing on the memorial villages! That being said, the whole east side is still pretty cheap. The same house that would cost you $500k in the Heights can be bought for $250k in Eastwood/Idylwood.