Bend, OR
Bend, OR Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Bend, OR Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Bend ranks 36th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 35th for income. A household earns $95,979 a year while median rent runs $1,834/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 4% above the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is commute (15th of 300), while home prices is the soft spot (281st). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 270th and home prices 281st 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 Bend, your take-home is worth about $53,380 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it less 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
- 35th of 300↑34%$95,979
- 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.
- 264th of 300104 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $92,638
- Per-capita income
- $51,213
- Full-time pay
- $50,270
Housing
- Median rent
- 270th of 300↑32.1%$1,834/mo
- Home value
- 281st of 300↑52.6%$631,000
- Property tax
- $3,715/yr · 0.6%
- Sales tax
- 0.00%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 146th of 3004.4%
- Bachelor's+
- 53rd of 30042.6%
- Avg commute
- 15th of 30019.5 min
People
- Population
- 264,407
- Population change
- +33.7%
- Median age
- 42.9 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 4.2%
- Broadband
- 92%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 52nd of 30039
- Natural-hazard loss
- 126th of 300$11/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 39th of 30015.9%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 7.6%
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
- + Affordability
- + Household income
- + Education
- + Commute
- + Air quality
- + Health
Watch-outs
- – Cost of living
- – Rent
- – Home prices
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — redmond ap.
What jobs pay in Bend
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $262,570
- IT managers
- $166,310
- Pharmacists
- $165,960
- Financial managers
- $149,030
- Registered nurses
- $135,010
- Software developers
- $129,030
- Lawyers
- $123,930
- Civil engineers
- $101,150
- Electricians
- $99,200
- Police officers
- $97,230
- General & operations managers
- $93,660
- Plumbers
- $92,330
- Accountants & auditors
- $86,030
- Secondary school teachers
- $81,040
- Elementary school teachers
- $77,810
- Carpenters
- $61,640
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $61,220
- Web developers
- $57,180
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $54,660
- Construction laborers
- $52,760
- Waiters & waitresses
- $50,480
- Customer service reps
- $46,390
- Janitors
- $43,050
- Retail salespersons
- $37,720
- Cashiers
- $36,290
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 Bend metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Oregon are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- California3,438
- Washington1,630
- Colorado620
- Arizona436
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Bend
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Bend metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Bend metro?
- Median gross rent across the Bend, OR Metro Area is $1,834 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Bend.
- What is the median household income in the Bend metro?
- A typical household in the Bend, OR Metro Area earns $95,979 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Bend expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Bend, OR Metro Area runs about 4% above the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are higher than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Bend metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $92,638 (versus its face value of $95,979). CityLedger rates the Bend, OR Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Bend metro?
- The median home value across the Bend, OR Metro Area is $631,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Bend metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Bend, OR Metro Area is 4.4% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).