What salary do you need to live in Morgantown, WV?

Morgantown housing costs at a glance

Renters in Morgantown pay a median $1,048 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $816, three bedrooms $1,134, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $3,816 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Morgantown, WV at $233,000. That works out to 3.6× the local median household income of $64,640, a mid-range ratio.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 93.3, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 6.7% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $107,155 would at average US prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Morgantown

For two bedrooms, $119,000 is where Morgantown turns Comfortable. Below that, $59,000 marks the start of Okay and $30,000 the start of Tight; under $30,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 11% of gross pay.

The Royal grade is within reach at $343,000 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.

Scores at $50K, $75K, $100K and $150K in Morgantown

Choosing a bigger place in Morgantown at $75,000 trims the score from 56 to 51 without leaving Okay.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $150,000 row. One row up, $100,000 scores 60.

Morgantown compared with every US metro

Ranked against all 387 metros, Morgantown sits 202nd on overall price level and 252nd on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 236th.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Greensboro-High Point, NC ($1,049) and Battle Creek, MI ($1,047).

Morgantown next to West Virginia and similar metros

How Morgantown stacks up against its state: $1,048 for a two-bedroom against West Virginia's $896, $233,000 for the median home against $162,600, and a price level of 93.3 against 89.5.

Scored the same way, the statewide figures turn Comfortable at $85,000, so Morgantown needs $34,000 more than West Virginia overall.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving West Virginia? Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV, Charleston, WV, and Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Morgantown's median income on the scale

The median household in the metro earns $64,640 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 48, Okay. Reaching Comfortable would take $54,360 more than the median household earns. Statewide, the West Virginia median household ($59,608) 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.

Treat every number here as a pre-tax, public-data estimate rather than financial advice.