What salary do you need to live in Wenatchee, WA?

Wenatchee housing costs at a glance

Renters in Wenatchee pay a median $1,275 a month for two bedrooms. Size matters: one bedroom is $934, three bedrooms $1,466, so going from the smallest to the largest of the three adds $6,384 a year.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA at $469,100. Set against the $81,938 median household income, that is a ratio of 5.7×, which keeps the buying part of the score low for most incomes.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 103.9 here. Above 100 means a paycheck stretches less: $100,000 in Wenatchee has the buying power of roughly $96,288 at national average prices.

Wenatchee: the pre-tax income for each grade

The salary lines for a two-bedroom household land at $58,000 for Tight, $116,000 for Okay and $232,000 for Comfortable. The gap between the Okay and Comfortable lines alone is $116,000, which says how much extra income it takes to make housing feel roomy here rather than merely workable.

Royal, the top band, starts at $655,000. At that income rent is 2% of pay and the median home 0.7× income.

Nothing here is a separate rule of thumb; plug any of these incomes into the calculator with two bedrooms and Wenatchee shows the matching grade.

Wenatchee at four common salaries

On $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 38 and a three-bedroom 31, both Tight; the extra bedrooms cost points but not a grade.

Comfortable is above every row of the table here. At $150,000 a two-bedroom still grades Okay, with rent taking 10% of income.

Wenatchee on the national list

On price level Wenatchee is 37th of 387 (1 = most expensive); on two-bedroom rent it is 127th, and on median home value 43rd. Rent and overall prices don't line up exactly, with prices among the priciest tenth and rent in the middle half.

Next to Wenatchee on the national rent ranking: Tucson, AZ ($1,275) and Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA ($1,274).

Wenatchee in a Washington context

Statewide, Washington's median two-bedroom rent is $1,756 and its median home value $564,600. Wenatchee's rent is −27% against that, and its home value −17%; the price parity is 103.9 versus 107.0 for the state.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $324,000 — above Wenatchee's $232,000 line.

If Wenatchee is on your list, Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA, Kennewick-Richland, WA, and Walla Walla, WA are the most similar Washington metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Where the typical Wenatchee household lands

A household at the Wenatchee median income of $81,938 would see a two-bedroom score of 35 — Tight — with rent at 19% of income. Put differently, Wenatchee's typical household is $150,062 below the $232,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. Statewide, the Washington median household ($98,141) grades Tight on the state's own medians. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

These are pre-tax estimates from public statistics, not financial advice.