Northern Virginia Real Estate and Community News Blog

Rental Costs Eat Up 70% of Your Income Here


System - Saturday, May 14, 2016
Soaring rental costs are taking a big dent out of some renters’ paychecks, and creating hardships for entry-level employees in particular. In New York City, the average entry-level employee earns $47,000 per year. That means affording the rent of an average one-bedroom apartment at $3,000 per month will take up 77 percent of the average employees’ monthly income, according to RadPad, which recently analyzed more than 150,000 apartment listings to judge affordability for entry-level employees. In San Francisco, employees’ have 79 percent of their incomes eaten up by rental costs – the highest percentage in the nation of any metro studied. Renters in Houston have it easier. Houston renters spend 29 percent of their incomes on rents, which falls under the 30 percent threshold that most financial planners say is healthy for a budget. Here are 10 popular cities ranked from highest to lowest in terms of the percentage of starting monthly income that goes towards rent:
  1. San Francisco: 79%
  2. New York City: 77%
  3. Los Angeles: 61%
  4. Boston: 56%
  5. Seattle: 51%
  6. Chicago: 47%
  7. Orlando: 44%
  8. Atlanta: 36%
  9. Austin: 36%
  10. Houston: 29%
Source: “An Entry-Level Salary Is Barely Enough to Make Rent in These Cities,” Credit.com (May 11, 2016)


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