What salary do you need to live in Boulder, CO?

Rent, home values and prices in Boulder

A one-bedroom in Boulder rents for a median of $1,690 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $2,008 and a three-bedroom for $2,366. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $24,096.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Boulder, CO at $756,300. Local median household income is $103,994, so the median home is 7.3× a typical income — high enough that ownership weighs heavily in the score unless income is well above the median.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 105.2 here. Above 100 means a paycheck stretches less: $100,000 in Boulder has the buying power of roughly $95,055 at national average prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Boulder

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $94,000 for Tight, $190,000 for Okay and $382,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $192,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

Reaching Royal takes $1,092,000 — 2.9× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

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.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Boulder

Choosing a bigger place in Boulder at $75,000 trims the score from 21 to 16 without leaving Stretched.

Comfortable is above every row of the table here. At $150,000 a two-bedroom still grades Tight, with rent taking 16% of income.

Boulder on the national list

Out of 387 metros, Boulder has the 29th highest price parity and the 18th highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it among the priciest tenth on overall prices and in the top 10% on rent.

Kahului-Wailuku, HI ($2,018) and Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO ($1,961) bracket Boulder on two-bedroom rent.

Comparing Boulder with Colorado

How Boulder stacks up against its state: $2,008 for a two-bedroom against Colorado's $1,782, $756,300 for the median home against $539,400, and a price level of 105.2 against 103.1.

The Colorado figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $292,000 against $382,000 for Boulder.

The nearest matches in Colorado, judged on rent and price parity together, are Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO, Fort Collins-Loveland, CO, and Colorado Springs, CO.

Does the typical Boulder income clear the bar?

A household at the Boulder median income of $103,994 would see a two-bedroom score of 28 — Tight — with rent at 23% of income. Reaching Comfortable would take $278,006 more than the median household earns. For Colorado as a whole, the median household income of $95,470 scores 33 against statewide rents. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

Treat every number here as a pre-tax, public-data estimate rather than financial advice.