What salary do you need to live in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY?

Louisville/Jefferson County housing costs at a glance

A one-bedroom in Louisville/Jefferson County rents for a median of $927 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,127 and a three-bedroom for $1,316. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $13,524.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN at $248,700. Against a median household income of $73,863, 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 93.1, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 6.9% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $107,441 would at average US prices.

Income needed for each grade in Louisville/Jefferson County

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $32,000 for Tight, $63,000 for Okay and $127,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $64,000, 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 $365,000 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 Louisville/Jefferson County shows the matching grade.

Scores at $50K, $75K, $100K and $150K in Louisville/Jefferson County

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 48 to 53.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $127,000 line above.

Louisville/Jefferson County compared with every US metro

Out of 387 metros, Louisville/Jefferson County has the 207th highest price parity and the 187th highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it in the middle half on overall prices and in the middle half on rent.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Kalamazoo-Portage, MI ($1,127) and Pueblo, CO ($1,127).

Louisville/Jefferson County in a Kentucky context

Statewide, Kentucky's median two-bedroom rent is $968 and its median home value $205,600. Louisville/Jefferson County's rent is +16% against that, and its home value +21%; the price parity is 93.1 versus 90.2 for the state. Because the metro spans Kentucky and Indiana, the comparison uses Kentucky, where Louisville/Jefferson County itself is.

Scored the same way, the statewide figures turn Comfortable at $100,000, so Louisville/Jefferson County needs $27,000 more than Kentucky overall.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving Kentucky? Lexington-Fayette, KY, Clarksville, TN-KY, and Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Louisville/Jefferson County's median income on the scale

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $73,863, which grades Okay (50) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Put differently, Louisville/Jefferson County's typical household is $53,137 below the $127,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. Statewide, the Kentucky median household ($63,726) 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.

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