Asheville, NC
Asheville, NC Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Asheville, NC Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Asheville ranks 167th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 145th for income. A household earns $76,275 a year while median rent runs $1,396/mo, making it moderately affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 3% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is education (40th of 300), while home prices is the soft spot (231st). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 183rd and home prices 231st among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Asheville, your take-home is worth about $60,792 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 145th of 300↑32.8%$76,275
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 173rd of 30097 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $79,037
- Per-capita income
- $44,329
- Full-time pay
- $40,330
Housing
- Median rent
- 183rd of 300↑43.2%$1,396/mo
- Home value
- 231st of 300↑69.3%$420,800
- Property tax
- $2,134/yr · 0.5%
- Sales tax
- 7.00%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 120th of 3004.1%
- Bachelor's+
- 40th of 30043.8%
- Avg commute
- 129th of 30023.6 min
People
- Population
- 422,333
- Population change
- -8.7%
- Median age
- 44.3 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 7.2%
- Broadband
- 94.9%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 177th of 30048
- Natural-hazard loss
- 94th of 300$10/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 64th of 30016.1%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 9.7%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Education
- + Hazard safety
- + Health
Watch-outs
- – Home prices
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — asheville.
What jobs pay in Asheville
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $212,710
- IT managers
- $163,290
- Financial managers
- $152,270
- Pharmacists
- $136,460
- Software developers
- $134,350
- Lawyers
- $105,480
- Civil engineers
- $100,170
- General & operations managers
- $93,470
- Registered nurses
- $81,590
- Accountants & auditors
- $80,400
- Web developers
- $79,530
- Secondary school teachers
- $59,320
- Plumbers
- $59,200
- Police officers
- $58,090
- Electricians
- $54,590
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $51,750
- Carpenters
- $51,290
- Elementary school teachers
- $50,080
- Construction laborers
- $47,520
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $47,360
- Customer service reps
- $38,980
- Janitors
- $35,720
- Waiters & waitresses
- $34,450
- Retail salespersons
- $34,110
- Cashiers
- $29,400
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Asheville metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in North Carolina are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Florida2,814
- South Carolina1,179
- New York989
- Georgia956
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Asheville
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Asheville metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Asheville metro?
- Median gross rent across the Asheville, NC Metro Area is $1,396 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Asheville.
- What is the median household income in the Asheville metro?
- A typical household in the Asheville, NC Metro Area earns $76,275 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Asheville expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Asheville, NC Metro Area runs about 3% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Asheville metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $79,037 (versus its face value of $76,275). CityLedger rates the Asheville, NC Metro Area moderately affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Asheville metro?
- The median home value across the Asheville, NC Metro Area is $420,800 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Asheville metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Asheville, NC Metro Area is 4.1% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).