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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• 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.