Sacramento, CA
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Sacramento ranks 36th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 28th for income. A household earns $98,775 a year while median rent runs $1,904/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 7% above the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is household income (28th of 300), while cost of living is the soft spot (280th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 278th and home prices 276th 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 Sacramento, your take-home is worth about $54,651 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
- 28th of 300↑28.8%$98,775
- 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.
- 280th of 300107 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $92,599
- Per-capita income
- $47,539
- Full-time pay
- $51,560
Housing
- Median rent
- 278th of 300↑37%$1,904/mo
- Home value
- 276th of 300↑39.4%$605,500
- Property tax
- $4,594/yr · 0.8%
- Sales tax
- 8.80%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 256th of 3005.9%
- Bachelor's+
- 93rd of 30038.3%
- Avg commute
- 252nd of 30027.7 min
People
- Population
- 2,463,127
- Population change
- +4.2%
- Median age
- 38.9 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 20.6%
- Broadband
- 95%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 273rd of 30055
- Natural-hazard loss
- 156th of 300$13/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 198th of 30019.9%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 8.1%
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
Watch-outs
- – Cost of living
- – Rent
- – Home prices
- – Job market
- – Commute
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — sacramento 5 ese.
What jobs pay in Sacramento
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $345,310
- Lawyers
- $178,540
- Pharmacists
- $172,680
- Registered nurses
- $171,460
- IT managers
- $165,270
- Financial managers
- $163,090
- Software developers
- $139,640
- Civil engineers
- $130,150
- General & operations managers
- $118,460
- Police officers
- $111,460
- Secondary school teachers
- $105,060
- Elementary school teachers
- $103,390
- Web developers
- $98,560
- Accountants & auditors
- $92,110
- Electricians
- $74,830
- Carpenters
- $74,440
- Plumbers
- $65,210
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $60,810
- Construction laborers
- $60,560
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $56,570
- Customer service reps
- $49,940
- Janitors
- $41,450
- Retail salespersons
- $38,100
- Cashiers
- $36,790
- Waiters & waitresses
- $35,070
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 Sacramento metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in California are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Oregon2,165
- Nevada2,116
- Texas1,958
- Arizona1,558
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Sacramento
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Sacramento metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Sacramento metro?
- Median gross rent across the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area is $1,904 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Sacramento.
- What is the median household income in the Sacramento metro?
- A typical household in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area earns $98,775 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Sacramento expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area runs about 7% 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 Sacramento metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $92,599 (versus its face value of $98,775). CityLedger rates the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Sacramento metro?
- The median home value across the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area is $605,500 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Sacramento metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area is 5.9% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).