What salary do you need to live in Winchester, VA?

What housing costs in Winchester

Median gross rent, meaning contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities, runs $1,010, $1,353 and $1,543 a month for one, two and three bedrooms across Winchester, VA-WV. The largest of those is 53% more than the smallest.

Homeowners in Winchester report a median home value of $355,400. That works out to 4.2× the local median household income of $84,298, a mid-range ratio.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 96.5 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Winchester has the buying power of roughly $103,681 at national average prices.

Winchester: the pre-tax income for each grade

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $44,000, Okay at $89,000 and Comfortable at $178,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 9% of income and the median home is 2.0× income.

Reaching Royal takes $506,000 — 2.8× the Comfortable line — because the last points come slowly once rent is already a small share.

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

Winchester at four common salaries

Choosing a bigger place in Winchester at $75,000 trims the score from 45 to 38 without leaving Tight.

None of the four salaries reaches Comfortable for two bedrooms; even $150,000 scores 60, Okay, which fits the $178,000 line above.

Winchester on the national list

Out of 387 metros, Winchester has the 139th highest price parity and the 108th highest two-bedroom rent, which puts it near the middle on overall prices and near the middle on rent.

Its nearest neighbors on the rent list are Wilmington, NC ($1,357) and Gainesville, FL ($1,351).

Winchester in a Virginia context

Compared with Virginia as a whole, two-bedroom rent in Winchester is 9% lower ($1,353 vs. $1,481) and the median home is 7% lower ($355,400 vs. $383,700). The metro also reaches into West Virginia; it is compared with Virginia, home of its first-named principal city.

The Virginia figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $216,000 against $178,000 for Winchester.

If Winchester is on your list, Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC, Richmond, VA, and Charlottesville, VA are the most similar Virginia metros by two-bedroom rent and price level; the table shows where each turns Comfortable.

Does the typical Winchester income clear the bar?

What about a typical local household? Census puts median household income here at $84,298, which grades Tight (44) for a two-bedroom at the median rent. Put differently, Winchester's typical household is $93,702 below the $178,000 it takes to read Comfortable on two bedrooms. For Virginia as a whole, the median household income of $93,170 scores 41 against statewide rents. Household income can include more than one earner, so a single salary of the same size goes less far.

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