Best Cities for a $30K Salary
Where under-$40k earners stretch furthest renting alone.
Data: 2026-Q2 · BLS · HUD · KFF St. Louis · MO
2 Breathing room comfortable · $995/mo
Pittsburgh · PA
3 Breathing room getting by · $1,077/mo
Detroit · MI
Breathing room getting by · $1,122/mo
Rankings derived from BLS OEWS May 2025, HUD FY2026 FMR, and Walk Score data.
FAQ
Best Cities for a $30K Salary — FAQ
How are these rankings calculated?
Best Cities for a $30K Salary is ranked by breathing room, computed at build time directly from verified public data. Rankings derived from BLS OEWS May 2025, HUD FY2026 FMR, and Walk Score data. Only the top 3 are shown here.
Why does this only show 3 cities?
Top Rankings highlights the top 3 in each category. The underlying ranking is computed the same way for every tracked location; this page focuses on the leaders.