METRO AREA · 95TH LARGEST

Cost of living in Durham, NC

Rent, home values, family budgets, pay and taxes for the Durham metro area, county by county.

The short answer: Typical rent in the Durham metro area is $1,660 a month, +0.7% on a year earlier. A typical home in its median county is worth $396,360. A modest budget for two adults and two children runs $109,770 a year in the median county.
Housing

What a home costs in the Durham area.

Across the 5 counties in the metro with their own Zillow home value, the median typical home is worth $396,360. Values changed 0.0% over the past year and +26.8% over five years at the median county. A typical home costs 3.85 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 $3,108 a month with tax, insurance and mortgage insurance, which takes $133,219 a year of income under the usual 28% guideline. The median family can afford its own county's typical home in none of the 5 counties, against 44.9% of counties nationally. Try it with your own income.

What a household needs

A modest budget in the Durham area.

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 $55,555 a year for one adult and $109,770 for two adults and two children, of which $15,373 is childcare, against national averages of $47,367 and $101,771. Median family income is $103,036 in the median county.

Prices, pay and taxes

The state picture.

Prices across North Carolina as a whole run 5.7% below the national average and rents 18.6% below the national average, by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's state measure. Median pay across all jobs in the state is $47,970 a year. North Carolina's top income tax rate on wages is 3.99%. These are statewide figures, not measured for the metro itself. The metro lies within North Carolina. Compare a salary with another state or work out take-home pay.

Every county in the metro

All 5 counties.

Chatham County$565,3810.0%$2,009$109,377$109,770
Durham County$396,360−3.4%$1,665$103,036$119,861
Granville County$317,221+0.4%$1,775$84,347$105,201
Orange County$508,867−1.8%$1,607$128,253$124,923
Person County$255,526+6.4%—$78,985$89,978

A dash means the source publishes no figure for that county. Metro membership follows Zillow's own county-to-metro assignment.

Other metro areas

New York, NY · Los Angeles, CA · Chicago, IL · Dallas, TX · Houston, TX · Washington, DC · Philadelphia, PA · Miami, FL · Atlanta, GA · Boston, MA · Phoenix, AZ · San Francisco, CA · Riverside, CA · Detroit, MI · Seattle, WA · Minneapolis, MN · San Diego, CA · Tampa, FL · Denver, CO · Baltimore, MD · St. Louis, MO · Orlando, FL · Charlotte, NC · San Antonio, TX · Portland, OR · Sacramento, CA · Pittsburgh, PA · Cincinnati, OH · Austin, TX · Las Vegas, NV · Kansas City, MO · Columbus, OH · Indianapolis, IN · Cleveland, OH · San Jose, CA · Nashville, TN · Virginia Beach, VA · Providence, RI · Jacksonville, FL · Milwaukee, WI · Oklahoma City, OK · Raleigh, NC · Memphis, TN · Richmond, VA · Louisville, KY · New Orleans, LA · Salt Lake City, UT · Hartford, CT · Buffalo, NY · Birmingham, AL · Rochester, NY · Grand Rapids, MI · Tucson, AZ · Honolulu, HI · Tulsa, OK · Fresno, CA · Worcester, MA · Omaha, NE · Bridgeport, CT · Greenville, SC · Albuquerque, NM · Bakersfield, CA · Albany, NY · Knoxville, TN · Baton Rouge, LA · McAllen, TX · New Haven, CT · El Paso, TX · Allentown, PA · Oxnard, CA · Columbia, SC · North Port, FL · Dayton, OH · Charleston, SC · Greensboro, NC · Stockton, CA · Cape Coral, FL · Boise, ID · Colorado Springs, CO · Little Rock, AR · Lakeland, FL · Akron, OH · Des Moines, IA · Springfield, MA · Poughkeepsie, NY · Ogden, UT · Madison, WI · Winston-Salem, NC · Deltona, FL · Syracuse, NY · Provo, UT · Toledo, OH · Wichita, KS · Durham, NC · Augusta, GA · Palm Bay, FL · Jackson, MS · Harrisburg, PA · Spokane, WA · Scranton, PA

See every state and metro side by side

More about North Carolina

Cost of living · Income tax · Child care costs

Metro areasCharlotte, NC · Raleigh, NC · Greensboro, NC · Winston-Salem, NC · Durham, NC

Run the numbersTake-home pay in North Carolina · What a salary is worth in North Carolina · How much rent you can afford · What a car costs in North Carolina

Put this on your site

Embed these numbers.

Writing about the Durham area? Paste this code into your page for a small card with the figures above, which update when the site's data does. It has no tracking and no cookies.

Where this comes from
Rent and home values
Zillow Observed Rent Index for the metro and Zillow Home Value Index by county, July 2026; changes compare the same month one and five years earlier.
Budgets and family income
Economic Policy Institute, Family Budget Calculator, 2026 edition, by county.
State figures
BEA Regional Price Parities 2024; BLS OEWS May 2025; 2026 state income tax tables.
Mortgage assumptions
Freddie Mac 30-year average of 7.03% on September 24, 2026; 10% down, 1.1% property tax, $1,700 a year of insurance, 0.75% mortgage insurance.
Keep reading
Rent vs. Buy Calculator
Your own breakeven point, on real county price and rent data.
Home Affordability Calculator
The most house your income and debts support, and what it costs monthly.
Cost of Living Calculator
What your salary is really worth in another state or county.