What salary do you need to live in Syracuse, NY?

What housing costs in Syracuse

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $886, $1,132 and $1,255 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Syracuse, NY. The largest of those is 42% more than the smallest.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Syracuse, NY at $187,700. That is only 2.5× the area's median household income of $75,492, a low ratio by national standards.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Syracuse's overall prices at 95.7 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $104,447 would elsewhere.

Income needed for each grade in Syracuse

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $30,000, Okay at $59,000 and Comfortable at $119,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 11% of income and the median home is 1.6× income.

The Royal grade is within reach at $411,000 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 Syracuse

At $75,000 home size barely changes the picture: one, two and three bedrooms all grade Okay, with scores from 50 to 56.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $119,000 line above.

How Syracuse ranks among 387 metros

Out of 387 metros, Syracuse has the 151st highest price parity and the 185th highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it near the middle on overall prices and near the middle on rent.

Next to Syracuse on the national rent ranking: Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV ($1,134) and Cheyenne, WY ($1,128).

Comparing Syracuse with New York

Statewide, New York's median two-bedroom rent is $1,620 and its median home value $423,800. Syracuse's rent is −30% against that, and its home value −56%; the price parity is 95.7 versus 107.9 for the state.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $278,000 — above Syracuse's $119,000 line.

Within New York, the metros closest to Syracuse on rent and overall prices are Glens Falls, NY, Elmira, NY, and Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $127,000, $104,000, and $126,000.

Syracuse's median income on the scale

A household at the Syracuse median income of $75,492 would see a two-bedroom score of 52 — Okay — with rent at 18% of income. Put differently, Syracuse's typical household is $43,508 below the $119,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. For New York as a whole, the median household income of $85,974 scores 32 against statewide rents. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

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