For millions of Americans living in bustling cities, sharing the rent with one or two roommates is a burdensome necessity to afford an apartment. But those hoping to find their own place may have to move.
A new study has calculated the best and worst cities for affording a studio apartment in America, with New York City’s skyrocketing rents and median wages earning it the title as the hardest place to live alone.
Residents of the Big Apple must earn as much as $140,000 to comfortably afford a studio apartment, and the East Coast hub was joined by neighboring Jersey City and Miami, Florida for hosting the least affordable solo apartments compared to the average. wage.
However, among the 100 U.S. cities that make up the survey The economistthe Midwest emerged victorious as metros like St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Detroit offered the best value for money.
Unsurprisingly, New York City emerged as the least affordable city to live in alone in America
It’s no secret that the cost of living in a major city has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to financial services firm Moody’s, the average share of income spent on rent was 30 percent last year, the highest in 25 years.
The study used average rents from real estate platform Zumper and wage data from the American Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate the affordability of America’s 100 largest cities.
Those who spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent are considered to be “rent burdened.” with all that is less committed to providing a comfortable ‘affordable studio wage’, based on average studio rents across the country in July 2023.
Looking at the figure alongside varying wages across the country then determined the ratio between the average salary in each city and the salary needed to comfortably pay rent on a studio apartment.
Cities with a ratio above one are struggling, while below one is a good sign that residents have some extra money for a rainy day.
In the Big Apple, it turned out that renters must earn at least $140,000 to live comfortably on their own.
This figure is a whopping $82,610 above the city’s median wage, giving a ratio of just 0.4.
Across the Hudson River, paying for a studio apartment in Jersey City costs a lucrative salary of $119,000, but the median wage of residents is well over $61,000 less.
The top ten worst solo cities to live in also include Boston, Miami, and Washington DC, all of which require renters to earn much more than the national average to live alone.
Of the 100 cities included in the study, 57 of them require salaries higher than the national average.
This also included Charlotte, North Carolina, which was one of the fastest growing cities in America in 2022, driving prices up and achieving a ratio of 0.72.
On the other end of the spectrum, renters in Lincoln, Nebraska only need to earn $29,240 to afford their own home.
In Jersey City, renters must earn a lucrative $119,000 salary to comfortably live alone
Residents of Miami, Florida are also in one of America’s least affordable metropolitan areas, where you need to earn $45,000 more than average to afford a studio
Because median wages in the city were $15,690 higher, the city came out on top in the survey.
This was followed by Whichita, Kansas, and Des Moines, Iowa, each of which had ratios of 1.45 and 1.43, respectively.
While Los Angeles and New York City fared poorly due to their skyrocketing rents and cost of living, both cities have affordable options right at their doorstep.
In New York State, it costs well over $100,000 less to comfortably afford a studio apartment in the city of Rochester.
In Bakersfield, about a two-hour drive from LA, residents enjoy some of the lowest affordable studio wages on the West Cost: $42,000.