What salary do you need to live in Minneapolis, MN?

Minneapolis housing costs at a glance

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $1,240, $1,553 and $1,827 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI. The largest of those is 47% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI at $374,000. With median household income at $99,833, a typical home costs 3.7× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 104.8 here. Above 100 means a paycheck stretches less: $100,000 in Minneapolis has the buying power of roughly $95,400 at national average prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Minneapolis

For two bedrooms, $239,000 is where Minneapolis turns Comfortable. Below that, $119,000 marks the start of Okay and $59,000 the start of Tight; under $59,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 8% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $831,000. At that income rent is 2% of pay and the median home 0.5× income.

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

Four salaries, three home sizes in Minneapolis

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Tight, with scores from 29 to 35.

Comfortable is above every row of the table here. At $150,000 a two-bedroom still grades Okay, with rent taking 12% of income.

Where Minneapolis falls nationally

On price level Minneapolis is 31st of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 62nd, and on median home value 92nd. Rent and overall prices don't line up exactly, with prices among the priciest tenth and rent in the most expensive quarter.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV ($1,553) and Raleigh-Cary, NC ($1,549).

Minneapolis vs. the rest of Minnesota

Compared with Minnesota as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Minneapolis is 15% higher ($1,553 vs. $1,356) and the median home is 14% higher ($374,000 vs. $329,300). Parts of the metro lie in Wisconsin, but Minneapolis is in Minnesota, so that is the state used here.

The Minnesota figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $181,000 against $239,000 for Minneapolis.

If Minneapolis is on your list, Rochester, MN, Mankato, MN, and La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN are the most similar Minnesota metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Minneapolis's median income on the scale

A household at the Minneapolis median income of $99,833 would see a two-bedroom score of 40 — Tight — with rent at 19% of income. That falls $139,167 short of the $239,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Minnesota median household ($89,062) grades Tight 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.