Huntsville, AL
Huntsville, AL Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Huntsville, AL Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Huntsville ranks 31st for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 69th for income. A household earns $87,049 a year while median rent runs $1,283/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 7% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is affordability (31st of 300), while hazard safety is the soft spot (192nd). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 160th and home prices 172nd 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 Huntsville, your take-home is worth about $62,052 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
- 69th of 300↑29.6%$87,049
- 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.
- 118th of 30093 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $93,529
- Per-capita income
- $46,868
- Full-time pay
- $47,488
Housing
- Median rent
- 160th of 300↑49.5%$1,283/mo
- Home value
- 172nd of 300↑72.2%$331,800
- Property tax
- $1,310/yr · 0.4%
- Sales tax
- 9.43%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 37th of 3003.1%
- Bachelor's+
- 40th of 30043.8%
- Avg commute
- 115th of 30023.3 min
People
- Population
- 542,297
- Population change
- +14.9%
- Median age
- 38.3 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 6%
- Broadband
- 93.9%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 116th of 30044
- Natural-hazard loss
- 192nd of 300$15/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 122nd of 30017.7%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 8.6%
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
- + Job market
- + Education
Watch-outs
- —
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — huntsville intnl ap.
What jobs pay in Huntsville
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $206,750
- IT managers
- $164,060
- Financial managers
- $158,620
- Pharmacists
- $136,840
- General & operations managers
- $136,340
- Lawyers
- $133,220
- Software developers
- $128,080
- Civil engineers
- $105,760
- Web developers
- $82,860
- Accountants & auditors
- $79,220
- Registered nurses
- $77,090
- Police officers
- $64,550
- Secondary school teachers
- $64,220
- Elementary school teachers
- $62,250
- Electricians
- $58,500
- Plumbers
- $57,020
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $56,690
- Carpenters
- $48,970
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $46,430
- Customer service reps
- $38,400
- Construction laborers
- $37,510
- Janitors
- $33,600
- Retail salespersons
- $33,120
- Cashiers
- $29,860
- Waiters & waitresses
- $27,990
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 Huntsville metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Alabama are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Tennessee2,679
- Georgia1,487
- Texas1,431
- Florida1,402
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Huntsville
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Huntsville metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Huntsville metro?
- Median gross rent across the Huntsville, AL Metro Area is $1,283 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Huntsville.
- What is the median household income in the Huntsville metro?
- A typical household in the Huntsville, AL Metro Area earns $87,049 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Huntsville expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Huntsville, AL Metro Area runs about 7% 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 Huntsville metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $93,529 (versus its face value of $87,049). CityLedger rates the Huntsville, AL Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Huntsville metro?
- The median home value across the Huntsville, AL Metro Area is $331,800 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Huntsville metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Huntsville, AL Metro Area is 3.1% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).