What salary do you need to live in Phoenix, AZ?

What housing costs in Phoenix

Census figures put the median gross rent in the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ metro at $1,447 for a one-bedroom, $1,684 for a two-bedroom and $2,003 for a three-bedroom. Moving from one to two bedrooms adds $237 a month, and the third bedroom another $319.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $440,900. That works out to 5.0× the local median household income of $88,301, a mid-range ratio.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Phoenix's overall prices at 103.3 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $96,790 would elsewhere.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Phoenix

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $64,000, Okay at $129,000 and Comfortable at $260,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 8% of income and the median home is 1.7× income.

The Royal grade is within reach at $845,000 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.

Four salaries, three home sizes in Phoenix

Choosing a bigger place in Phoenix at $75,000 trims the score from 32 to 27 without leaving Tight.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 49, Okay, which fits the $260,000 line above.

Where Phoenix falls nationally

On price level Phoenix is 44th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 36th, and on median home value 53rd. Rent and overall prices don't line up exactly, with prices in the top quarter and rent among the priciest tenth.

Next to Phoenix on the national rent ranking: Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA ($1,714) and Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD ($1,675).

Phoenix next to Arizona and similar metros

Statewide, Arizona's median two-bedroom rent is $1,541 and its median home value $394,500. Phoenix's rent is +9% against that, and its home value +12%; the price parity is 103.3 versus 100.7 for the state.

The Arizona figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $221,000 against $260,000 for Phoenix.

The nearest matches in Arizona, judged on rent and price parity together, are Flagstaff, AZ, Prescott Valley-Prescott, AZ, and Tucson, AZ.

Phoenix's median income on the scale

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $88,301, which grades Tight (34) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Reaching Comfortable would take $171,699 more than the median household earns. For Arizona as a whole, the median household income of $79,964 scores 36 against statewide rents. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

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