What salary do you need to live in Lynchburg, VA?

The cost side of living in Lynchburg

Census figures put the median gross rent in the Lynchburg, VA metro at $814 for a one-bedroom, $938 for a two-bedroom and $1,248 for a three-bedroom. Moving from one to two bedrooms adds $124 a month, and the third bedroom another $310.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $239,700. Against a median household income of $68,996, the ratio is 3.5× — one of the gentler home-price-to-income ratios in the country.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 89.4 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Lynchburg has the buying power of roughly $111,903 at national average prices.

Income needed for each grade in Lynchburg

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $26,000 for Tight, $52,000 for Okay and $104,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $52,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

Reaching Royal takes $259,000 — 2.5× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

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

Lynchburg at four common salaries

Choosing a bigger place in Lynchburg at $75,000 trims the score from 58 to 51 without leaving Okay.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $104,000 line above.

How Lynchburg ranks among 387 metros

Ranked against all 387 metros, Lynchburg sits 303rd on overall price level and 338th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 229th.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Lima, OH ($939) and Joplin, MO-KS ($937).

Comparing Lynchburg with Virginia

How Lynchburg stacks up against its state: $938 for a two-bedroom against Virginia's $1,481, $239,700 for the median home against $383,700, and a price level of 89.4 against 101.1.

The Virginia figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $216,000 against $104,000 for Lynchburg.

Within Virginia, the metros closest to Lynchburg on rent and overall prices are Staunton-Stuarts Draft, VA, Roanoke, VA, and Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $120,000, $120,000, and $84,000.

Does the typical Lynchburg income clear the bar?

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $68,996, which grades Okay (54) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Put differently, Lynchburg's typical household is $35,004 below the $104,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. For Virginia as a whole, the median household income of $93,170 scores 41 against statewide rents. 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.