Texas vs. Colorado: what changes when you trade Denver or Colorado Springs for Texas.

Side by side

We used the same source on both sides wherever we could: Apartment List for rent, Zillow for home values, EIA for gas, Experian for car insurance and BEA for overall prices. The one exception is Houston home prices, noted below.

Zillow’s home value index is a typical value for all homes in the city, not a sale price. We couldn’t open Zillow’s Houston page, so the Houston row uses HAR’s sale-price median instead; don’t compare it directly to the Zillow figures. Denver’s sales tax is the minimum combined rate; some special districts add more. The regional summer bill row covers groups of states, not Denver or Dallas alone. BEA’s next price-parity release, with 2025 data, is due Dec 10, 2026.

Colorado income tax, in plain terms

Colorado taxes income at a single rate: 4.4%, the rate the Department of Revenue’s 2026 estimated-tax worksheet uses. There’s no separate state standard deduction. The return starts from your federal taxable income, so the federal standard deduction ($16,100 for a single filer in 2026) carries over. Some higher-income filers must add part of it back.

On top of that, two other charges come out of a Colorado paycheck:

• FAMLI. Colorado’s paid family and medical leave premium is 0.88% of wages in 2026, on wages up to $184,500. Your employer can take up to half of it, 0.44%, out of your pay. It funds leave benefits, but it’s withheld like a tax.
• Denver’s occupational privilege tax. Workers in Denver pay $5.75 a month in any month they earn $500 or more there. Aurora and Greenwood Village charge workers $2. Colorado Springs isn’t on the list.

Texas has none of these: no income tax, no state paid-leave premium, no city head tax.

On the Nov 3, 2026 ballot

Colorado voters are deciding two competing income tax measures. Amendment 87 would replace the flat rate with six brackets, from 3.7% on the first $25,000 to 8.4% above $1 million; income from $100,000 to $500,000 would stay at 4.4%. Proposition 136 would cap the rate at 4.4%. If both pass, the one with more yes votes controls where they conflict. Under Amendment 87’s brackets as listed, anyone with taxable income under $500,000 would pay a bit less than today, not more. We’ll update this page after the results.

Don’t count on a rate cut otherwise. Colorado’s legislative economists expect no TABOR refunds for tax year 2026 and no automatic rate reduction until 2029.

Worked example: $90,000 and $150,000 in Denver vs. Austin

This counts state income tax, the worker’s FAMLI share and Denver’s occupational privilege tax, for a single filer with wages only. Our assumptions:

• Single filer, under 65, no dependents, all income from wages, full-year Colorado resident, working in Denver every month.
• Colorado taxable income equals federal taxable income: wages less the 2026 federal standard deduction of $16,100. No Colorado additions, subtractions or credits.
• Tax at 4.4%, the current rate, before anything voters decide on Nov 3, 2026.
• FAMLI at the worker’s half, 0.44% of wages (both salaries are under the $184,500 cap). Denver OPT at $5.75 × 12.
• Federal tax, sales tax and property tax are left out.

In Colorado Springs, drop the $69 OPT: the totals are $3,648 and $6,552. The Texas side is the same in Dallas or Houston.

Then add rent

Denver is the priciest place to rent on this page. The median 1-bedroom is $1,414 in Denver and $1,172 in Austin, a gap of $242 a month, or $2,904 a year. To Houston ($1,116) it’s $298 a month. So a $150,000 earner leaving a Denver 1-bedroom for one in Austin keeps roughly $6,621 in taxes and premiums plus about $2,900 in rent. Colorado Springs is different: its median 1-bedroom ($1,131) is a little below Austin’s and Dallas’s.

And then subtract property tax, if you buy

Using the Tax Foundation’s statewide effective rates, a $500,000 home (close to Denver’s and Austin’s typical values) works out to about $2,500 a year at Colorado’s 0.50% and about $7,000 at Texas’s 1.40%. That $4,500 gap is more than the $90,000 earner’s Colorado taxes and most of the $150,000 earner’s. It’s an illustration, not a bill: Texas bills depend on the city, the school district and your homestead exemption. See Texas property taxes for local rates.

Colorado property tax vs. Texas property tax

Colorado homeowners pay some of the lowest effective rates in the country: 0.47% in Denver, where the Tax Foundation puts the median home value at $616,000 and the median tax paid at $2,751, and 0.45% in El Paso County. Texas has no state property tax, but local units lean on it heavily, and the statewide effective rate is 1.40%.

• The Texas school-tax homestead exemption is now $140,000, and filing is free.
• A Texas homestead’s taxable value can rise no more than 10% a year.
• Dallas and Houston homes cost far less than Denver’s, so the higher rate falls on a smaller number. Austin’s typical value is close to Denver’s, so Austin buyers feel the full difference.
• In Dallas County, a tax rate election is on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot, so the county rate may change.

What surprises people coming from Colorado

Power is cheaper per kWh, but you’ll use far more of it

Colorado’s residential average was 17.2¢/kWh in August 2026, up 5.9% in a year, against 15.9¢ in Texas. But Texas summers are long. The EIA estimates homes in Texas’s region used about 1,478 kWh a month in summer 2026, against 1,193 kWh in the Mountain states, and paid about $226 a month against $179. In Dallas and Houston you choose your own electricity plan; Austin has city-owned Austin Energy. See Texas electricity and Texas summer costs.

Gas is about 83 cents cheaper

EIA had Colorado at $4.458 a gallon and Texas at $3.632 in the week of Oct 26, 2026. At 12,000 miles a year and 25 mpg, that’s about $400 a year.

Car insurance costs more

Experian’s September 2026 averages are $1,865 in Colorado and $2,329 in Texas. Austin ($2,151) is the cheapest of the three big Texas cities; Houston ($2,696) is the most expensive. Registration and the new-resident fee are on our vehicle costs page.

Overall prices are lower, but Dallas is close to Colorado Springs

BEA puts Denver at 105.8, about 6% above the U.S. average. Austin (98.1) and Houston (98.6) are 7 to 8 points lower. Dallas-Fort Worth (103.1) is actually a bit above Colorado Springs (100.7).

Home insurance is a real line item

The Texas Department of Insurance puts the average Texas homeowners premium at $3,489 for 2025 (preliminary). Hail and wind drive it. Get quotes before you make an offer; see Texas insurance.

More Texans move to Colorado than the other way

Census survey data for 2024, compiled by Texas REALTORS, shows about 28,000 people moved from Texas to Colorado, tying it with Oklahoma as the third most popular destination for people leaving Texas. Texas had a net loss of about 5,000 people to Colorado, one of its largest net losses to any state. These are survey estimates with margins of error, so treat them as rounded.

Out-of-date numbers you’ll still find online

The Tax Foundation’s newest state-local burden figures are still for calendar year 2022, even in its May 2026 Facts & Figures. They’re the latest available, not stale copies. Gas prices change weekly; EIA’s figures here are for the week of Oct 26, 2026.

Where to go next

Pick a city: Austin, Dallas or Houston, or compare them all on the Texas city comparison. Then work through the moving checklist, Texas taxes and child care costs. Weighing Arizona too? See Texas vs. Arizona.

How we check

Every figure links to its source and shows the date it applies to. We prefer the agency that produces the number, such as the Colorado Department of Revenue, Colorado FAMLI, the IRS, the EIA and BEA. We label anything from a marketplace or aggregator, such as the Experian, Zillow, Avalara and ElectricRates.org figures here. Read the full methodology.