What salary do you need to live in Lafayette, IN?

The cost side of living in Lafayette

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $966, $1,126 and $1,233 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN. The largest of those is 28% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN at $226,100. That works out to 3.6× the local median household income of $62,011, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 93.4 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Lafayette has the buying power of roughly $107,032 at national average prices.

Income needed for each grade in Lafayette

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $31,000, Okay at $61,000 and Comfortable at $122,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 11% of income and the median home is 1.9× income.

The Royal grade is within reach at $370,000 a year, where both rent and the median home price look small next to income.

How they were found: the same scoring function the calculator runs was evaluated at rising incomes until each cutoff was crossed, and the crossing rounded up to a whole $1,000.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Lafayette

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 54 and a three-bedroom 50, both Okay; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $150,000 row. One row up, $100,000 scores 59.

Lafayette on the national list

Ranked against all 387 metros, Lafayette sits 198th on overall price level and 190th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 247th.

Fayetteville, NC ($1,126) and Pinehurst-Southern Pines, NC ($1,125) bracket Lafayette on two-bedroom rent.

Lafayette vs. the rest of Indiana

Compared with Indiana as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Lafayette is 5% higher ($1,126 vs. $1,076) and the median home is 4% higher ($226,100 vs. $218,200).

Run Indiana's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $117,000; Lafayette's line is +4% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving Indiana? Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN, Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN, and South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Does the typical Lafayette income clear the bar?

A household at the Lafayette median income of $62,011 would see a two-bedroom score of 46 — Okay — with rent at 22% of income. Reaching Comfortable would take $59,989 more than the median household earns. For Indiana as a whole, the median household income of $71,957 scores 51 against statewide rents. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

All figures are pre-tax estimates from public data, not financial advice.