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

Rent, home values and prices in Rochester

A one-bedroom in Rochester rents for a median of $1,016 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,250 and a three-bedroom for $1,538. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $15,000.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Rochester, MN at $306,500. Against a median household income of $91,882, the ratio is 3.3× — one of the gentler home-price-to-income ratios in the country.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Rochester's overall prices at 90.8 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $110,107 would elsewhere.

How much you need to earn in Rochester

For two bedrooms, $140,000 is where Rochester turns Comfortable. Below that, $70,000 marks the start of Okay and $35,000 the start of Tight; under $35,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 11% of gross pay.

Reaching Royal takes $367,000 — 2.6× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

Each figure is the lowest income, to the next $1,000, at which the calculator itself would show that grade for a two-bedroom in Rochester.

Rochester at four common salaries

Home size shifts the grade at $75,000: Okay for one bedroom, Okay for two and Tight for three, as the rent share climbs from 16% to 25%.

Of the four salaries, $150,000 is the first where a two-bedroom reads Comfortable or better; $100,000 still lands at Okay.

Rochester compared with every US metro

On price level Rochester is 275th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 137th, and on median home value 144th. The two rankings agree, both falling near the middle.

For a sense of scale, the metros just above and below it on two-bedroom rent are Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI ($1,254) and Salisbury, MD ($1,248).

Rochester next to Minnesota and similar metros

How Rochester stacks up against its state: $1,250 for a two-bedroom against Minnesota's $1,356, $306,500 for the median home against $329,300, and a price level of 90.8 against 98.6.

Run Minnesota's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $181,000; Rochester's line is −23% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving Minnesota? Mankato, MN, La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN, and St. Cloud, MN have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Does the typical Rochester income clear the bar?

A household at the Rochester median income of $91,882 would see a two-bedroom score of 53 — Okay — with rent at 16% of income. The Comfortable line is 52% above what the median household makes. Statewide, the Minnesota median household ($89,062) grades Tight on the state's own medians. Keep in mind a household median often combines two incomes.

All figures are pre-tax estimates from public data, not financial advice.