What salary do you need to live in Chicago, IL?

Chicago housing costs at a glance

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $1,246, $1,444 and $1,699 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN. The largest of those is 36% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN at $323,000. With median household income at $90,887, a typical home costs 3.6× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Chicago's overall prices at 103.6 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $96,530 would elsewhere.

Income needed for each grade in Chicago

For two bedrooms, $209,000 is where Chicago turns Comfortable. Below that, $104,000 marks the start of Okay and $52,000 the start of Tight; under $52,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 8% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $733,000. At that income rent is 2% of pay and the median home 0.4× income.

Each figure is the lowest income, to the next $1,000, at which the calculator itself would show that grade for a two-bedroom in Chicago.

What different incomes look like in Chicago

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 38 and a three-bedroom 33, both Tight; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

In Chicago the table's top salary of $150,000 stops at Okay (56) for two bedrooms; Comfortable starts higher, at $209,000.

Chicago on the national list

On price level Chicago is 41st of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 81st, and on median home value 131st. The two rankings agree, both falling in the most expensive quarter.

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ ($1,444) and Anchorage, AK ($1,443) bracket Chicago on two-bedroom rent.

Comparing Chicago with Illinois

Statewide, Illinois's median two-bedroom rent is $1,284 and its median home value $263,300. Chicago's rent is +12% against that, and its home value +23%; the price parity is 103.6 versus 100.0 for the state. Parts of the metro lie in Indiana, but Chicago is in Illinois, so that is the state used here.

Run Illinois's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $164,000; Chicago's line is +27% from that.

If Chicago is on your list, St. Louis, MO-IL, Kankakee, IL, and Champaign-Urbana, IL are the most similar Illinois metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Does the typical Chicago income clear the bar?

A household at the Chicago median income of $90,887 would see a two-bedroom score of 41 — Tight — with rent at 19% of income. That falls $118,113 short of the $209,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For Illinois as a whole, the median household income of $83,390 scores 46 against statewide rents. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.