What salary do you need to live in Sioux City, IA?

Rent, home values and prices in Sioux City

Census figures put the median gross rent in the Sioux City, IA-NE-SD metro at $834 for a one-bedroom, $1,039 for a two-bedroom and $1,162 for a three-bedroom. Moving from one to two bedrooms adds $205 a month, and the third bedroom another $123.

On the ownership side, the typical owner-occupied home is valued at $193,100. That is only 2.6× the area's median household income of $75,192, a low ratio by national standards.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 86.5 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Sioux City has the buying power of roughly $115,668 at national average prices.

How much you need to earn in Sioux City

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $21,000 for Tight, $46,000 for Okay and $93,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $47,000, 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 $253,000 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 Sioux City

Choosing a bigger place in Sioux City at $75,000 trims the score from 63 to 57 without leaving Okay.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $100,000, consistent with the $93,000 line above.

Sioux City on the national list

On price level Sioux City is 359th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 257th, and on median home value 316th. Rent and overall prices don't line up exactly, with prices in the bottom 10% and rent in the middle half.

Midland, MI ($1,039) and Lewiston, ID-WA ($1,038) bracket Sioux City on two-bedroom rent.

Sioux City in a Iowa context

Statewide, Iowa's median two-bedroom rent is $989 and its median home value $208,000. Sioux City's rent is +5% against that, and its home value −7%; the price parity is 86.5 versus 87.8 for the state. Parts of the metro lie in Nebraska and South Dakota, but Sioux City is in Iowa, so that is the state used here.

Run Iowa's statewide medians through the same score and Comfortable begins at $96,000; Sioux City's line is −3% from that.

The nearest matches in Iowa, judged on rent and price parity together, are Dubuque, IA, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA, and Ames, IA.

The median Sioux City household

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $75,192, which grades Okay (59) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Reaching Comfortable would take $17,808 more than the median household earns. For Iowa as a whole, the median household income of $75,059 scores 58 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.