Over the past 20 years rising rents have outpaced wage growth in America
Across American cities, ahead of new school and college terms, streets fill up with people sweating in the summer heat as they lug furniture and piles of discarded household items. Inevitably, the season ushers in frantic rent negotiations with landlords.
. According to Moody’s, a financial-services company, the average share of household income spent on rent hit 30% in 2022, its highest proportion in at least 25 years. That means the average American household is now classed as “rent-burdened” . For city dwellers, particularly those who wish to live alone—as Carrie Bradshaw, the protagonist of “Sex and the City”, did in New York—finding affordable housing is particularly challenging.
But of course, wages vary across the country too. To find cities where a studio apartment is within reach for the average earner we developed the “Carrie Bradshaw index”. Using pay data from the American Bureau of Labour Statistics we calculated the ratio of the median salary in each city to the salary needed to afford rent on a studio apartment. In some places the Bradshaw index is greater than 1, meaning living alone is affordable for most workers.
A total of 62 of the 100 cities have a score below 1. In bad news for aspiring Carries, New York is at one extreme. With an index value of 0.4, the median salary of $57,000 is less than half of what is required to live comfortably alone . Boston and Jersey City, two other east-coast cities, also look unaffordable for most, with scores of 0.66 and 0.48, respectively.
But for a flexible renter, some affordable options remain. Take St Louis, Missouri, where the median wage, at $46,000, is nearly one and a half times what is needed to rent a studio, giving it an index value of 1.4. For those craving the hustle and bustle of a bigger city, Cincinnati, Detroit or Minneapolis all offer good value for money. Relocate wisely, and you might even be able to afford the luxury of a separate living room. Or Carrie’s walk-in wardrobe.
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