I found a very interesting website by the Center for Housing Policy that analyzed 200 major markets across the United States regarding the cost of housing and average rents vs. occupational pay.
The website is: http://www.nhc.org/chp/p2p/
“Paycheck to Paycheck, the Center for Housing Policy presents wage information for more than 60 occupations and home prices and rents for more than 200 metropolitan areas. Paycheck to Paycheck utilizes consistent measures of wages and housing costs so you can:
* See how workers in your metropolitan area are faring in the housing market;
* View the big picture for housing affordability for working families in various occupations across the country; and
* Use these analyses as a template to examine wages and housing costs in neighborhoods in your community.”
For Northern Colorado, they analyzed Fort Collins and Greeley. It appears we are in reasonable shape. Good on the apartment rental side, yet requiring a two income household on the home purchase side.