What salary do you need to live in Bakersfield, CA?

The cost side of living in Bakersfield

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $946, $1,197 and $1,560 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Bakersfield-Delano, CA. The largest of those is 65% more than the smallest.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $338,300. That works out to 4.8× the local median household income of $70,210, a mid-range ratio.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis puts Bakersfield's Regional Price Parity at 100.9, essentially the US average of 100: a dollar of income here buys about what it would anywhere on average, rents and everyday goods included.

Bakersfield: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $45,000, Okay at $90,000 and Comfortable at $181,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 8% of income and the median home is 1.9× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $541,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.6× income.

How they were found: the same scoring function the calculator runs was evaluated at rising incomes until each cutoff was crossed, and the crossing rounded up to a whole $1,000.

What different incomes look like in Bakersfield

Choosing a bigger place in Bakersfield at $75,000 trims the score from 44 to 36 without leaving Tight.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 60, Okay, which fits the $181,000 line above.

Bakersfield compared with every US metro

Out of 387 metros, Bakersfield has the 71st highest price parity and the 161st highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the most expensive quarter on overall prices and in the middle half on rent.

Next to Bakersfield on the national rent ranking: Traverse City, MI ($1,200) and Bloomington, IN ($1,193).

Bakersfield in a California context

Statewide, California's median two-bedroom rent is $2,103 and its median home value $734,700. Bakersfield's rent is −43% against that, and its home value −54%; the price parity is 100.9 versus 110.7 for the state.

Run California's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $439,000; Bakersfield's line is −59% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving California? Hanford-Corcoran, CA, Visalia, CA, and Merced, CA have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

The median Bakersfield household

The median household in the metro earns $70,210 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 38, Tight. The Comfortable line is 158% above what the median household makes. Statewide, the California median household ($99,122) grades Stretched on the state's own medians. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

Estimates use pre-tax income and public data; they are not financial advice.