What salary do you need to live in Owensboro, KY?

Owensboro housing costs at a glance

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $662, $921 and $1,116 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Owensboro, KY. The largest of those is 69% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Owensboro, KY at $195,400. Against a median household income of $68,002, the ratio is 2.9× — 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 88.6 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Owensboro has the buying power of roughly $112,854 at national average prices.

Owensboro: the pre-tax income for each grade

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $23,000 for Tight, $46,000 for Okay and $92,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $46,000, 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 $246,000 a year, where both rent and the median home price look small next to income.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

What different incomes look like in Owensboro

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 56 to 65.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $100,000 row. One row up, $75,000 scores 59.

How Owensboro ranks among 387 metros

On price level Owensboro is 320th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 348th, and on median home value 310th. The two rankings agree, both falling in the bottom quarter.

Jonesboro, AR ($921) and Canton-Massillon, OH ($916) bracket Owensboro on two-bedroom rent.

Owensboro in a Kentucky context

Compared with Kentucky as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Owensboro is 5% lower ($921 vs. $968) and the median home is 5% lower ($195,400 vs. $205,600).

Run Kentucky's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $100,000; Owensboro's line is −8% from that.

If Owensboro is on your list, Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH, Elizabethtown, KY, and Paducah, KY-IL are the most similar Kentucky metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Does the typical Owensboro income clear the bar?

A household at the Owensboro median income of $68,002 would see a two-bedroom score of 57 — Okay — with rent at 16% of income. Reaching Comfortable would take $23,998 more than the median household earns. For Kentucky as a whole, the median household income of $63,726 scores 52 against statewide rents. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

Estimates use pre-tax income and public data; they are not financial advice.