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

The cost side of living in Yakima

A one-bedroom in Yakima rents for a median of $826 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,106 and a three-bedroom for $1,361. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $13,272.

Buying is the other half of the housing picture: owners put the median home in Yakima, WA at $310,100. With median household income at $70,656, a typical home costs 4.4× a typical income, close to the middle of the range across US metros.

The Regional Price Parity, BEA's index of local prices with the US at 100, is 95.5 here. Below 100 means a paycheck stretches further: $100,000 in Yakima has the buying power of roughly $104,663 at national average prices.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Yakima

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $37,000, Okay at $73,000 and Comfortable at $147,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 9% of income and the median home is 2.1× income.

Royal, the top band, starts at $398,000. At that income rent is 3% of pay and the median home 0.8× 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.

Scores at $50K, $75K, $100K and $150K in Yakima

At $75,000, a one-bedroom scores 50 (Okay), a two-bedroom 46 (Okay) and a three-bedroom 43 (Tight). The $6,420 a year between the smallest and largest home is what moves the grade.

Read down the two-bedroom column and the first Comfortable row is $150,000, consistent with the $147,000 line above.

How Yakima ranks among 387 metros

Ranked against all 387 metros, Yakima sits 157th on overall price level and 212th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 137th.

Lebanon, PA ($1,109) and Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX ($1,105) bracket Yakima on two-bedroom rent.

Yakima in a Washington context

How Yakima stacks up against its state: $1,106 for a two-bedroom against Washington's $1,756, $310,100 for the median home against $564,600, and a price level of 95.5 against 107.0.

On statewide medians, a two-bedroom budget reaches Comfortable at $324,000 — above Yakima's $147,000 line.

The nearest matches in Washington, judged on rent and price parity together, are Longview-Kelso, WA, Lewiston, ID-WA, and Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA.

The median Yakima household

The median household in the metro earns $70,656 (ACS 2020-2024). Run through the calculator with two bedrooms, that scores 44, Tight. Reaching Comfortable would take $76,344 more than the median household earns. Statewide, the Washington median household ($98,141) grades Tight on the state's own medians. Since a household can have two or more earners, compare it with a combined income rather than one paycheck.

Treat every number here as a pre-tax, public-data estimate rather than financial advice.