What salary do you need to live in Charleston, SC?

Charleston housing costs at a glance

A one-bedroom in Charleston rents for a median of $1,433 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,581 and a three-bedroom for $1,802. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $18,972.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $377,500. With median household income at $85,254, a typical home costs 4.4× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

Prices overall are close to average. BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 101.0 against a US baseline of 100, so $100,000 here buys roughly $99,047 worth of the national basket.

Income needed for each grade in Charleston

For two bedrooms, $221,000 is where Charleston turns Comfortable. Below that, $110,000 marks the start of Okay and $55,000 the start of Tight; under $55,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 9% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $717,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.5× income.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

Charleston at four common salaries

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 36 and a three-bedroom 32, both Tight; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

In Charleston the table's top salary of $150,000 stops at Okay (54) for two bedrooms; Comfortable starts higher, at $221,000.

Where Charleston falls nationally

On price level Charleston is 68th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 56th, and on median home value 89th. The two rankings agree, both falling in the top quarter.

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD ($1,585) and Bend, OR ($1,576) bracket Charleston on two-bedroom rent.

Charleston next to South Carolina and similar metros

Compared with South Carolina as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Charleston is 38% higher ($1,581 vs. $1,148) and the median home is 46% higher ($377,500 vs. $259,000).

The South Carolina figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $132,000 against $221,000 for Charleston.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving South Carolina? Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, SC, Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC, and Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, SC have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Does the typical Charleston income clear the bar?

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $85,254, which grades Tight (38) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. The Comfortable line is 159% above what the median household makes. Statewide, the South Carolina median household ($69,324) grades Okay on the state's own medians. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

All figures are pre-tax estimates from public data, not financial advice.