What salary do you need to live in Florence, AL?

Rent, home values and prices in Florence

Renters in Florence pay a median $866 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $642, three bedrooms $986, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $4,128 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL at $187,400. That is only 3.0× the area's median household income of $61,891, a low ratio by national standards.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 84.8, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 15.2% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $117,901 would at average US prices.

How much you need to earn in Florence

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $19,000 for Tight, $40,000 for Okay and $80,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $40,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

The Royal grade is within reach at $198,000 a year, where both rent and the median home price look small next to 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.

Florence at four common salaries

Take a $75,000 salary. In a one-bedroom the rent share is 10% and the score 68, Comfortable; in a three-bedroom the share rises to 16% and the score falls to 61, Okay.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $100,000, consistent with the $80,000 line above.

How Florence ranks among 387 metros

Ranked against all 387 metros, Florence sits 380th on overall price level and 368th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 329th.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Albany, GA ($871) and Cape Girardeau, MO-IL ($863).

Florence in a Alabama context

Statewide, Alabama's median two-bedroom rent is $960 and its median home value $209,900. Florence's rent is −10% against that, and its home value −11%; the price parity is 84.8 versus 88.8 for the state.

Scored the same way, the statewide figures turn Comfortable at $97,000, so Florence needs $17,000 less than Alabama overall.

Within Alabama, the metros closest to Florence on rent and overall prices are Dothan, AL, Gadsden, AL, and Decatur, AL. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $76,000, $75,000, and $85,000.

The median Florence household

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $61,891, which grades Okay (58) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. That falls $18,109 short of the $80,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Alabama median household ($63,999) 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.

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