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

Kingsport housing costs at a glance

A one-bedroom in Kingsport rents for a median of $625 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $855 and a three-bedroom for $953. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $10,260.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $198,400. Against a median household income of $57,792, 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 86.4, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 13.6% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $115,678 would at average US prices.

How much you need to earn in Kingsport

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $21,000, Okay at $42,000 and Comfortable at $84,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 12% of income and the median home is 2.4× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $208,000. At that income rent is 5% of pay and the median home 1.0× income.

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

What different incomes look like in Kingsport

Home size shifts the grade at $75,000: Comfortable for one bedroom, Okay for two and Okay for three, as the rent share climbs from 10% to 15%.

Of the four salaries, $100,000 is the first where a two-bedroom reads Comfortable or better; $75,000 still lands at Okay.

Kingsport on the national list

Out of 387 metros, Kingsport has the 360th highest price parity and the 372nd highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the bottom 10% on overall prices and among the least expensive tenth on rent.

Decatur, IL ($859) and Eagle Pass, TX ($853) bracket Kingsport on two-bedroom rent.

Kingsport in a Tennessee context

How Kingsport stacks up against its state: $855 for a two-bedroom against Tennessee's $1,143, $198,400 for the median home against $286,700, and a price level of 86.4 against 91.9. Parts of the metro lie in Virginia, but Kingsport is in Tennessee, so that is the state used here.

Scored the same way, the statewide figures turn Comfortable at $132,000, so Kingsport needs $48,000 less than Tennessee overall.

If Kingsport is on your list, Morristown, TN, Johnson City, TN, and Jackson, TN are the most similar Tennessee metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Kingsport's median income on the scale

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $57,792, which grades Okay (54) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Reaching Comfortable would take $26,208 more than the median household earns. 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.

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