How Much You Need To Earn To Live Comfortably in 50 Major Cities

There is no one single answer to the amount money you need to make to live comfortably, but one oft-used rule of thumb in budgeting is the 50/30/20 rule — which calls for half your income to go to necessities, 20% to savings and investments, and 30% for splurges and fun.

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For most Americans, that’s a pretty sensible approach to defining a living wage, but plenty of residents living in America’s largest cities are probably reading that and thinking “Are you insane? Half my income doesn’t even cover my rent, and I live in a converted dumbwaiter.”

And it’s true: How much money you need to live comfortably is typically much higher in the big city, putting the 50/30/20 rule out of reach for most of its residents. That’s why a new GOBankingRates study lays out just how much you need to earn to live comfortably in the largest larger U.S. cities, based on the prices to buy or rent a home there.

Using Zillow to calculate housing costs in the 100 largest cities and Sperling’s Best Places to estimate the price of other necessities like transportation, groceries and healthcare, the end result provides you with a clear sense of just how much you would need to bring in to stick to the 50/30/20 rule at average levels of spending in each category. We pared the results to the 50 places that had the lowest necessary income for homeowners and listed them alphabetically — not by a financial ranking.

With the average salary in most of the listed U.S. cities falling significantly short of what’s needed to live comfortably there, the study should make it clear that a lot of America’s urbanites probably have to make cuts elsewhere to afford to live in their city. So if you’re thinking about living in a bigger city, keep reading to see the ideal salary and cost of living in some of America’s cities.

Anchorage, Alaska

Median income: $95,731
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $109,102
Income needed if you’re a renter: $94,191

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Arlington, Texas

Median income: $71,736
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $88,767
Income needed if you’re a renter: $85,158

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Arlington, Virginia

Median income: $137,387
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $182,722
Income needed if you’re a renter: $111,677

Atlanta

Median income: $77,655
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $105,287
Income needed if you’re a renter: $91,167

Austin, Texas

Median income: $86,556
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $122,078
Income needed if you’re a renter: $86,927

Boise City, Idaho

Median income: $76,402
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $98,475
Income needed if you’re a renter: $75,996

Chandler, Arizona

Median income: $99,374
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $117,126
Income needed if you’re a renter: $91,735

Charlotte, North Carolina

Median income: $74,070
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $99,169
Income needed if you’re a renter: $87,549

Cincinnati

Median income: $49,191
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $75,036
Income needed if you’re a renter: $78,678

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Median income: $79,026
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $106,858
Income needed if you’re a renter: $88,561

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Columbus, Ohio

Median income: $62,994
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $78,135
Income needed if you’re a renter: $75,443

Corpus Christi, Texas

Median income: $64,449
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $73,495
Income needed if you’re a renter: $77,457

Dallas

Median income: $63,985
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $88,913
Income needed if you’re a renter: $85,974

Durham, North Carolina

Median income: $74,710
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $99,603
Income needed if you’re a renter: $85,290

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El Paso, Texas

Median income: $55,710
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $71,034
Income needed if you’re a renter: $77,658

Fort Wayne, Indiana

Median income: $58,233
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $71,778
Income needed if you’re a renter: $68,534

Fort Worth, Texas

Median income: $72,726
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $86,743
Income needed if you’re a renter: $87,040

Fremont, California

Median income: $169,023
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $251,359
Income needed if you’re a renter: $114,614

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Gilbert, Arizona

Median income: $115,179
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $122,915
Income needed if you’re a renter: $97,027

Greensboro, North Carolina

Median income: $55,051
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $78,782
Income needed if you’re a renter: $77,460

Indianapolis

Median income: $59,110
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $73,770
Income needed if you’re a renter: $75,307

Irving, Texas

Median income: $76,686
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $92,833
Income needed if you’re a renter: $84,733

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Jacksonville, Florida

Median income: $64,138
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $86,976
Income needed if you’re a renter: $83,788

Kansas City, Missouri

Median income: $65,256
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $75,375
Income needed if you’re a renter: $76,827

Laredo, Texas

Median income: $60,928
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $69,003
Income needed if you’re a renter: $69,711

Las Vegas

Median income: $66,356
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $103,662
Income needed if you’re a renter: $86,975

Lexington, Kentucky

Median income: $66,087
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $82,845
Income needed if you’re a renter: $76,168

Lincoln, Nebraska

Median income: $67,846
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $89,360
Income needed if you’re a renter: $81,280

Lubbock, Texas

Median income: $58,734
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $74,024
Income needed if you’re a renter: $76,497

Madison, Wisconsin

Median income: $74,895
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $101,342
Income needed if you’re a renter: $84,737

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Mesa, Arizona

Median income: $73,766
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $104,774
Income needed if you’re a renter: $83,852

Milwaukee

Median income: $49,733
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $70,807
Income needed if you’re a renter: $74,602

Minneapolis

Median income: $76,332
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $90,287
Income needed if you’re a renter: $84,866

Norfolk, Virginia

Median income: $60,998
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $84,907
Income needed if you’re a renter: $81,758

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Oklahoma City

Median income: $64,251
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $71,867
Income needed if you’re a renter: $73,979

Omaha, Nebraska

Median income: $70,202
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $86,420
Income needed if you’re a renter: $80,621

Pittsburgh

Median income: $60,187
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $75,854
Income needed if you’re a renter: $81,515

Plano, Texas

Median income: $105,679
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $115,769
Income needed if you’re a renter: $88,935

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Portland, Oregon

Median income: $85,876
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $120,784
Income needed if you’re a renter: $88,119

Raleigh, North Carolina

Median income: $78,631
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $105,271
Income needed if you’re a renter: $85,125

Reno, Nevada

Median income: $73,073
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $118,796
Income needed if you’re a renter: $88,284

Richmond, Virginia

Median income: $59,606
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $93,937
Income needed if you’re a renter: $84,326

St. Louis

Median income: $52,941
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $65,692
Income needed if you’re a renter: $72,606

St. Paul, Minnesota

Median income: $69,919
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $81,106
Income needed if you’re a renter: $77,601

St. Petersburg, Florida

Median income: $70,333
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $101,110
Income needed if you’re a renter: $96,228

San Antonio

Median income: $59,593
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $78,219
Income needed if you’re a renter: $76,471

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Seattle

Median income: $116,068
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $170,812
Income needed if you’re a renter: $99,115

Spokane, Washington

Median income: $63,316
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $94,731
Income needed if you’re a renter: $79,688

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Median income: $56,648
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $71,478
Income needed if you’re a renter: $74,113

Virginia Beach, Virginia

Median income: $87,544
Income needed if you’re a homeowner: $104,487
Income needed if you’re a renter: $93,907

Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: For this study, GOBankingRates wanted to analyze the income someone would need to live comfortably in 50 major U.S. Cities. GOBankingRates started by gathering the [1] top 100 most populated cities in the U.S. as sourced from the U.S. Census American Consumer Survey. For each city, the cost of living indexes across a variety of expenditures were sourced including [2] grocery cost of living index, [3] healthcare cost of living index, [4] utilities cost of living index, [5] transportation cost of living index and [6] miscellaneous cost of living index, all sourced from Sperlings BestPlaces. These were multiplied by the [7] national average expenditure cost, as sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, to find the average expenditure cost for each city. The [8] average home value for single-family homes from December 2023 was sourced for each city, and using the [9] 30-year fixed rate mortgage national average, as sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Research, the average mortgage cost was calculated. The [10] average rental cost from December 2023 is sourced from the Zillow Observed Rental Index. Combining the average mortgage and the average expenditure costs gives you the amount needed for a homeowner, and combining the average rental cost and the average expenditure cost gives you the amount needed for a renter. Using the 50/30/20 rule, GOBankingRates calculated the amounts needed for a homeowner or renter to live comfortably. The [11] livability index was sourced from AreaVibes and the [12] median income was sourced from the U.S. Census American Consumer Survey. The median income was scored, the livability index was scored, the amount needed to live comfortably as a homeowner was scored, the amount needed to live comfortably as a renter was scored, the difference from homeowner amount needed to median income was scored, the difference from renter amount needed to live comfortably to median income was scored, with all scores combined and sorted to show how much you need to earn to live comfortably in major U.S. cities. All data was collected and is up-to-date as of Feb. 6, 2024.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: How Much You Need To Earn To Live Comfortably in 50 Major Cities