What salary do you need to live in Cleveland, TN?

What housing costs in Cleveland

Renters in Cleveland pay a median $995 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $773, three bedrooms $1,169, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $4,752 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Cleveland, TN at $247,000. With median household income at $66,135, a typical home costs 3.7× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 88.1, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 11.9% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $113,533 would at average US prices.

How much you need to earn in Cleveland

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $26,000 for Tight, $52,000 for Okay and $105,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $53,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

Reaching Royal takes $260,000 — 2.5× 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.

Cleveland at four common salaries

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 59 and a three-bedroom 53, both Okay; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

Of the four salaries, $150,000 is the first where a two-bedroom reads Comfortable or better; $100,000 still lands at Okay.

How Cleveland ranks among 387 metros

Out of 387 metros, Cleveland has the 334th highest price parity and the 292nd highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the least expensive quarter on overall prices and in the bottom quarter on rent.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Wichita, KS ($998) and Topeka, KS ($995).

Cleveland vs. the rest of Tennessee

How Cleveland stacks up against its state: $995 for a two-bedroom against Tennessee's $1,143, $247,000 for the median home against $286,700, and a price level of 88.1 against 91.9.

Run Tennessee's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $132,000; Cleveland's line is −20% from that.

The nearest matches in Tennessee, judged on rent and price parity together, are Johnson City, TN, Jackson, TN, and Morristown, TN.

Cleveland's median income on the scale

The median household in the metro earns $66,135 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 52, Okay. That falls $38,865 short of the $105,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Tennessee median household ($69,595) grades Okay 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.

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