What salary do you need to live in Rockford, IL?

The cost side of living in Rockford

Renters in Rockford pay a median $1,045 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $704, three bedrooms $1,249, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $6,540 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Rockford, IL at $171,300. Against a median household income of $68,033, the ratio is 2.5× — one of the gentler home-price-to-income ratios in the country.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 92.2, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 7.8% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $108,514 would at average US prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Rockford

For two bedrooms, $101,000 is where Rockford turns Comfortable. Below that, $50,000 marks the start of Okay and $25,000 the start of Tight; under $25,000 the score reads Stretched. Rent at the Comfortable line is 12% of gross pay.

Royal, the top band, starts at $325,000. At that income rent is 4% of pay and the median home 0.5× income.

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 Rockford.

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

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 63 and a three-bedroom 54, both Okay; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $101,000 line above.

Rockford compared with every US metro

On price level Rockford is 239th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 255th, and on median home value 346th. The two rankings agree, both falling near the middle.

Next to Rockford on the national rent ranking: Sebring, FL ($1,047) and Longview, TX ($1,043).

Rockford vs. the rest of Illinois

Compared with Illinois as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Rockford is 19% lower ($1,045 vs. $1,284) and the median home is 35% lower ($171,300 vs. $263,300).

Run Illinois's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $164,000; Rockford's line is −38% from that.

Looking for somewhere comparable without leaving Illinois? Bloomington, IL, Champaign-Urbana, IL, and Peoria, IL have the closest mix of rent and overall prices.

Where the typical Rockford household lands

A household at the Rockford median income of $68,033 would see a two-bedroom score of 54 — Okay — with rent at 18% of income. That falls $32,967 short of the $101,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Illinois median household ($83,390) grades Okay on the state's own medians. Keep in mind a household median often combines two incomes.

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