LivingCostFacts / county

Barren County, KY: cost of living

Compare HUD rent benchmarks with household income in Barren County, Kentucky. These figures describe area-wide conditions rather than a personal budget.

Kentucky state RPP: 90.2 (BEA 2024; U.S. = 100). Regional context, not a county-specific price estimate.

BEA 2024 · HUD FY2027 · ACS 2020–2024 · CPI through 2026-10

$916
2BR monthly rent

HUD FY2027

21.7%
Rent / household income

Annual 2BR FMR ÷ ACS median income

$50,628
Median household income

ACS 2020–2024

$178,000
Median home value

Owner-occupied homes, ACS 2020–2024

Read the local picture

Fair Market Rent (FMR) is HUD’s estimate of the 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality rental homes occupied by recent movers. It includes rent and most tenant-paid utilities. A household’s actual rent can differ substantially by neighborhood, lease and property.

2BR rent: county vs state vs US

HUD FY2027 monthly gross FMR. State and U.S. values are population-weighted county means. Dollars per month.

  1. Barren County$916
  2. Kentucky$1,155
  3. United States$1,761
0$1,761

Put the benchmark in context

The rent-to-income comparison uses 12 months of the 2BR FMR divided by median household income. It compares different vintages and all household types; it is not the share of renter households that are cost burdened.

Annual income vs annual 2BR rent

ACS 2020–2024 median household income and 12 × HUD FY2027 2BR FMR. Dollars per year; separate vintages and household groups.

  1. Median household income$50,628
  2. Annual 2BR rent$10,992
0$50,628

Income remaining after this rent benchmark is $39,636 per year, before taxes, food, transport, health care and other expenses.

No BEA metro RPP is assigned to this county from the July 2023 Census metropolitan delineation. State RPP provides wider context.

The data in view

Monthly rent by bedroom

HUD FY2027 gross monthly FMR; includes most tenant-paid utilities. Dollars per month.

  1. Studio$696
  2. 1 bedroom$700
  3. 2 bedrooms$916
  4. 3 bedrooms$1,171
  5. 4 bedrooms$1,331
0$1,331

Kentucky: RPP components

BEA 2024 regional context; each category is compared with its own U.S. = 100 benchmark. These are not county price estimates or spending shares.

  1. All items90.2
  2. Goods96.0
  3. Housing rents64.3
  4. Utilities75.3
  5. Other services97.3
0100.0

Black marker: U.S. benchmark = 100 in each row.

Monthly Fair Market Rent by bedroom

HUD 40th percentile gross rent for standard-quality units; includes tenant-paid utilities except telephone, cable and internet. These are benchmarks, not asking-rent medians.

Home sizeFY2027 monthly gross rent
Studio$696
1 bedroom$700
2 bedrooms$916
3 bedrooms$1,171
4 bedrooms$1,331

Homeownership and population

Property taxes are for owner-occupied homes, not a renter charge. A + marks a Census top-coded estimate.

MeasureValue
Median annual real estate taxes paid$1,212
Population used for weighting (HUD pop2024)44,938

Compare rent and income

State and U.S. rents are population-weighted means of available county benchmarks; income is the published ACS median.

Area2BR rent / monthMedian household income
Barren County$916$50,628
Kentucky$1,155$63,726
United States$1,761$80,734