What salary do you need to live in Grand Forks, ND?

Rent, home values and prices in Grand Forks

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $794, $942 and $1,346 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Grand Forks, ND-MN. The largest of those is 70% more than the smallest.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $242,500. That is only 3.5× the area's median household income of $69,836, a low ratio by national standards.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Grand Forks's overall prices at 86.7 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $115,389 would elsewhere.

How much you need to earn in Grand Forks

For two bedrooms, $98,000 is where Grand Forks turns Comfortable. Below that, $49,000 marks the start of Okay and $25,000 the start of Tight; under $25,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 12% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $232,000. At that income rent is 5% of pay and the median home 1.0× 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.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Grand Forks

Choosing a bigger place in Grand Forks at $75,000 trims the score from 60 to 52 without leaving Okay.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $100,000 row. One row up, $75,000 scores 58.

Grand Forks compared with every US metro

Ranked against all 387 metros, Grand Forks sits 357th on overall price level and 335th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 219th.

Valdosta, GA ($944) and Terre Haute, IN ($942) bracket Grand Forks on two-bedroom rent.

Grand Forks vs. the rest of North Dakota

How Grand Forks stacks up against its state: $942 for a two-bedroom against North Dakota's $950, $242,500 for the median home against $249,900, and a price level of 86.7 against 89.0. Parts of the metro lie in Minnesota, but Grand Forks is in North Dakota, so that is the state used here.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $105,000 — above Grand Forks's $98,000 line.

Within North Dakota, the metros closest to Grand Forks on rent and overall prices are Minot, ND, Fargo, ND-MN, and Bismarck, ND. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $103,000, $120,000, and $124,000.

The median Grand Forks household

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $69,836, which grades Okay (55) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. That falls $28,164 short of the $98,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For North Dakota as a whole, the median household income of $76,657 scores 56 against statewide rents. 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.