It’s no secret that the housing market has taken many Americans for a loop in the past couple of months. Between the current inflation rate and a pending recession, many people are faced with the hard decision of finding affordable housing, while still trying to stay afloat. And many cities are facing an affordable housing shortage.
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The team at United Way of the National Capital Area analyzed data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition to find which cities have the largest and smallest affordable housing shortages, the annual income required to afford a one-bedroom and two-bedroom rental in each city (at fair market rent), and the hours both minimum wage and average wage workers need to work each week to afford a one-bedroom and two-bedroom rental in each city (at fair market rent).
Here are the U.S. Cities with the Largest and Smallest Affordable Housing Shortage:
To put things into perspective, here’s a quick reference of some rental realities from the study:
• Renters in San Francisco need to earn over $116K per year to afford a modest, one-bedroom rental, at fair-market rent. Yet, the average renter there makes $93,303 per year, making them short by almost $24K.
• In only two cities, Buffalo, NY and Tucson, AZ, can minimum wage workers afford a one-bedroom rental with under 50 hours worked per week.
• Minimum wage workers in D.C. must work 78 hours/week on average to afford a modest, one-bedroom rental.
