Based on the panel data of 276 cities in China from 2010 to 2016，this paper explores the impact of housing price-to-income ratio （PIR） on industrial upgrading. The result shows that， from the perspective of national cities， there is a U-shaped relationship about the impact of PIR on industrial upgrading， in which the relatively low PIR has inhibitory effect on the industrial upgrading，while the relatively high PIR has a promoting effect on industrial upgrading. From the perspective of the first，second and third tier cities，PIR in the first tier cities promotes industrial upgrading，while the PIR in the second and third tier cities inhibits industrial upgrading. The impact of PIR on industrial upgrading is restricted by the characteristics of urbanization threshold. In cities with high urbanization level，PIR promotes industrial upgrading， while in cities with low urbanization level，PIR inhibits industrial upgrading. Further research shows that PIR plays a screening role in urban population mobility，which affects the talent agglomeration. The PIR promotes the industrial upgrading through the effect of talent agglomeration.