Rent, home values, family budgets, pay and taxes for the Birmingham metro area, county by county.
Across the 6 counties in the metro with their own Zillow home value, the median typical home is worth $230,482. Values changed +1.8% over the past year and +15.7% over five years at the median county. A typical home costs 3.09 years of median family income at the median county.
With 10% down at 7.03%, the average 30-year rate on September 24, 2026, that home costs about $1,867 a month with tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, which takes $80,007 a year of income under the usual 28% guideline. The median family can afford its own county's typical home in 1 of the 6 counties, against 44.9% of counties nationally. Try it with your own income.
The most expensive counties in the metro are Shelby County ($363,240), St. Clair County ($281,844) and Blount County ($236,382); the least expensive are Jefferson County ($217,176), Bibb County ($223,183) and Chilton County ($224,581).
The Economic Policy Institute prices what a modest but adequate standard of living costs in every county. In the median county of the metro, that comes to $46,908 a year for one adult and $99,702 for two adults and two children, of which $15,924 is childcare, against national averages of $47,367 and $101,771. Median family income is $80,824 in the median county.
Prices across Alabama as a whole run 11.2% below the national average and rents 38.2% below the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's state measure. Median pay across all jobs in the state is $45,670 a year. Alabama's top income tax rate on wages is 5%. These are statewide figures, not measured for the metro itself. The metro lies within Alabama. Compare a salary with another state or work out take-home pay.
| Bibb County | $223,183 | +0.8% | — | $67,222 | $96,265 |
| Blount County | $236,382 | +0.9% | $1,360 | $76,388 | $95,405 |
| Chilton County | $224,581 | +5.0% | $1,407 | $74,137 | $92,892 |
| Jefferson County | $217,176 | +1.4% | $1,392 | $85,260 | $103,139 |
| Shelby County | $363,240 | +2.1% | $1,751 | $115,789 | $112,439 |
| St. Clair County | $281,844 | +3.3% | $1,655 | $91,091 | $105,036 |
A dash means the source publishes no figure for that county. Metro membership follows Zillow's own county-to-metro assignment.
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Cost of living · Income tax · Child care costs
Metro areasBirmingham, AL
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