What salary do you need to live in Salisbury, MD?

What housing costs in Salisbury

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $891, $1,248 and $1,545 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Salisbury, MD. The largest of those is 73% more than the smallest.

Homeowners in Salisbury report a median home value of $241,200. That is only 3.3× the area's median household income of $73,802, a low ratio by national standards.

BEA's Regional Price Parity for the metro is 95.6, where 100 is the US average. In plain terms, the full basket of goods, services and housing costs 4.4% less than average, so $100,000 here buys roughly what $104,584 would at average US prices.

Salisbury: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $35,000, Okay at $70,000 and Comfortable at $140,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 11% of income and the median home is 1.7× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $450,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.5× 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 Salisbury

Take a $75,000 salary. In a one-bedroom the rent share is 14% and the score 52, Okay; in a three-bedroom the share rises to 25% and the score falls to 44, Tight.

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

Where Salisbury falls nationally

On price level Salisbury is 154th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 138th, and on median home value 224th. The two rankings agree, both falling in the middle half.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Rochester, MN ($1,250) and Sherman-Denison, TX ($1,247).

Comparing Salisbury with Maryland

Compared with Maryland as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Salisbury is 28% lower ($1,248 vs. $1,740) and the median home is 43% lower ($241,200 vs. $419,900).

Run Maryland's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $268,000; Salisbury's line is −48% from that.

Within Maryland, the metros closest to Salisbury on rent and overall prices are Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV, Lexington Park, MD, and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $137,000, $236,000, and $223,000.

Where the typical Salisbury household lands

The median household in the metro earns $73,802 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 47, Okay. That falls $66,198 short of the $140,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. For Maryland as a whole, the median household income of $103,678 scores 38 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.