Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Kettering's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Kettering?
Your $100,000 in Kettering has the same purchasing power as $115,380 in the average US city. You'd need $15,380 less here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Kettering's cost index of 87, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Kettering, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and low unemployment, plenty of openings lead, plus 3 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 87, a comfortable 13% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $942/mo against a typical household income of $69,818, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
At about 3.7% unemployment, Kettering's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
The reported crime rate in Kettering runs about 1,487 per 100,000 residents — meaningfully below the national norm. People who care about safety as a baseline rather than a feature tend to land in cities with numbers like these.
Average commute time in Kettering runs around 20 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Kettering has a college-educated share of about 40% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Kettering's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Snow is a regular feature, not a surprise. With winter temperatures hovering near 26°F, Kettering sees enough snowfall that locals don't think twice about it but also enough mild stretches that nobody owns three pairs of boots.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Kettering averages roughly 26°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Reliably warm. Kettering's summer averages around 85°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Zone 8, give or take a half-zone. Kettering's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 8 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Roughly 1,010 feet (308 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
The headline number is reassuring. Kettering's reported incident rate of about 1,487 per 100,000 is comfortably below the US norm of around 3,500 per 100k. Specific neighborhoods always vary, but the broader picture is on the safer side.
Kettering is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 87 versus the 100 national baseline — about 13% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Kettering scores 39 out of 100 on Walk Score, which translates to "car-dependent but not aggressively so". Some neighborhoods buck the citywide average; the dense inner cores are usually noticeably more walkable than the city number suggests.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $60,669 to live in Kettering the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Kettering runs about $942/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.