As the cost of living in Dallas fluctuates, a financially secure future is getting harder to attain, it seems. A new report has determined that Dallas residents need to make $4,000 more than they did last year to make living comfortable in 2025.

Residents in Dallas have the 31st most affordable salary requirements nationwide to maintain financial stability in 2025, according to SmartAsset's annual study. Their experts collected data from MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to determine the cost of living for a childless individual in the 100 largest American metro areas.

Single adults in Dallas would need to make $95,930 a year to live a comfortable life in 2025, or $4,160 more than last year's salary requirements.

That's a huge jump from SmartAsset's 2023 report, when single Dallasites only needed to make $64,742 post-tax to live a financially stable life.

For a family of two working adults and two children, the combined income necessary to live comfortably in the Dallas area is $213,741 a year. For additional context, the median household income in the city was $70,121 in 2023.

Financially stable incomes in other Dallas-Fort Worth cities
Dallas tied with Irving and Garland for the No. 31 spot in the report, while Fort Worth and Arlington tied for No. 34. North Texans living on the west side of the Metroplex would need to make $96,429 a year to maintain a comfortable living, only $499 more than Dallas dwellers.

Three additional DFW cities – Plano, Frisco, and McKinney – tied for No. 69 nationally with single individuals needing to make nearly $108,000 a year to be financially comfortable in those suburbs. Families of four would need to bring in $229,715 a year.

Breaking down the cost of living in Dallas
SmartAsset also used the 50/30/20 budgeting strategy to figure out what a “comfortable lifestyle” meant for the purpose of their study: 50 percent of their income goes to a person’s needs/living expenses, 30 percent to a person’s wants, and 20 percent for their savings or paying down debt.

That means a childless Dallas individual would need to spend $47,965 of their salary on their living expenses, $28,779 for discretionary expenses, and put about $19,186 toward their savings or debt payments.

Families of four would have to spend about $106,871 on living expenses, $64,122 on entertainment or hobbies, and $42,748 toward savings or paying down debt in order to live comfortably in Dallas, based on the study's findings.

"Most households aim to maintain a cushion between the necessary spending for day-to-day necessities – like housing, food, utilities and childcare – while also enjoying life in the moment and saving for the future," the report's author wrote. "This means keeping room in the budget for the occasional vacation or splurge, as well as savings for long-term goals like retirement or a child’s college education."

Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas-Fort Worth cities sat comfortably among the top 35 U.S. cities with most affordable salary requirements to be financially stable. But two other Texas cities were more budget-friendly: San Antonio (No. 6) and Houston (No. 15).

Single San Antonio residents need to make $86,694 in order to live comfortably in their city, while Houstonians would have to make $90,064.

The top 10 U.S. cities with the most affordable salaries needed to live comfortably in 2025 are:

• No. 1 – Indianapolis, Indiana ($85,197)
• No. 2 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ($85,446)
• No. 3 – Tulsa, Oklahoma ($85,571)
• No. 4 – New Orleans, Louisiana ($86,445)
• No. 5 – Albuquerque, New Mexico ($86,611)
• No. 6 – San Antonio, Texas ($86,694)
• No. 7 – Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Tuscon, Arizona (tied, $86,736)
• No. 9 – Spokane, Washington ($87,818)
• No. 10 – Baltimore, Maryland ($87,984)