Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Renton's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Renton?
Your $100,000 in Renton has the same purchasing power as $80,678 in the average US city. You'd need $19,322 more 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 Renton's cost index of 124, sorted by closest match.
Renton has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Washington doesn't tax your paycheck and solidly above-average earnings are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
Living in Renton means no state income tax on your salary — Washington is one of nine states that simply doesn't have one. On a $100k income that's typically thousands of dollars a year that stay in your account instead of going to a state revenue department. (Washington taxes some long-term capital gains over a high threshold, but ordinary wages and salaries are not taxed.)
The typical household in Renton pulls in $92,292 — comfortably above the US median. Combined with the cost of living here, the income-to-expense ratio works out better than a quick look at either number in isolation would suggest.
With a citywide Walk Score of 60/100, Renton sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand. Transit Score comes in at 55/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 60/100 in Renton. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Reasons are pulled from Renton'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.
Not really a snow town. With winters averaging 38°F, Renton sits in the mild-cold band where snowflakes appear occasionally and everything melts within a day. Most years see one storm worth talking about.
Cool, not cold. Winters in Renton sit around 38°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Renton sits about 75°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Renton falls in roughly USDA Zone 9. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Around 36 feet (11 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Renton's altitude shows up in daily life.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Renton's ~5,113 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Renton's composite index is 124 versus 100 for the US, with rent and home prices driving most of the gap. Salaries in higher-paying industries usually move together, but the math still tightens for everyone else.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 60/100, Renton has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 55 out of 100. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $86,765 to live in Renton 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 Renton runs about $1,864/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.