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

Rent, home values and prices in Hickory

Renters in Hickory pay a median $851 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $692, three bedrooms $935, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $2,916 a year.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $215,600. Against a median household income of $62,787, the ratio is 3.4× — one of the gentler home-price-to-income ratios in the country.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 88.5, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 11.5% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $113,012 would at average US prices.

Hickory: the pre-tax income for each grade

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $23,000 for Tight, $46,000 for Okay and $92,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $46,000, 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 $226,000 a year, where both rent and the median home price look small next to income.

Nothing here is a separate rule of thumb; plug any of these incomes into the calculator with two bedrooms and Hickory shows the matching grade.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Hickory

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 58 to 63.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $100,000 row. One row up, $75,000 scores 59.

How Hickory ranks among 387 metros

On price level Hickory is 323rd of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 374th, and on median home value 270th. Rent and overall prices don't line up exactly, with prices in the bottom quarter and rent among the least expensive tenth.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Eagle Pass, TX ($853) and Fort Smith, AR-OK ($847).

Hickory in a North Carolina context

Statewide, North Carolina's median two-bedroom rent is $1,164 and its median home value $288,900. Hickory's rent is −27% against that, and its home value −25%; the price parity is 88.5 versus 94.3 for the state.

Run North Carolina's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $142,000; Hickory's line is −35% from that.

Within North Carolina, the metros closest to Hickory on rent and overall prices are Rocky Mount, NC, Goldsboro, NC, and Winston-Salem, NC. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $81,000, $89,000, and $110,000.

Does the typical Hickory income clear the bar?

A household at the Hickory median income of $62,787 would see a two-bedroom score of 54 — Okay — with rent at 16% of income. The Comfortable line is 47% above what the median household makes. Statewide, the North Carolina median household ($72,388) grades Okay on the state's own medians. 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.