What salary do you need to live in Fayetteville, NC?

The cost side of living in Fayetteville

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $1,000, $1,126 and $1,337 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Fayetteville, NC. The largest of those is 34% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Fayetteville, NC at $202,700. That is only 3.3× the area's median household income of $61,763, a low ratio by national standards.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Fayetteville's overall prices at 92.0 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $108,722 would elsewhere.

Fayetteville: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $28,000, Okay at $56,000 and Comfortable at $113,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 12% of income and the median home is 1.8× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $348,000. At that income rent is 4% of pay and the median home 0.6× 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 Fayetteville.

Fayetteville at four common salaries

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 51 to 55.

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

Fayetteville on the national list

On price level Fayetteville is 243rd of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 190th, and on median home value 294th. The two rankings agree, both falling near the middle.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Bangor, ME ($1,126) and Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN ($1,126).

Comparing Fayetteville with North Carolina

How Fayetteville stacks up against its state: $1,126 for a two-bedroom against North Carolina's $1,164, $202,700 for the median home against $288,900, and a price level of 92.0 against 94.3.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $142,000 — above Fayetteville's $113,000 line.

Within North Carolina, the metros closest to Fayetteville on rent and overall prices are Jacksonville, NC, Pinehurst-Southern Pines, NC, and Greensboro-High Point, NC. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $118,000, $133,000, and $117,000.

Fayetteville's median income on the scale

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $61,763, which grades Okay (48) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Put differently, Fayetteville's typical household is $51,237 below the $113,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. For North Carolina as a whole, the median household income of $72,388 scores 46 against statewide rents. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

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