This is the salary you would need to keep rental costs at 30% of your total income in the most expensive cities.
A new analysis found that you’ll need to earn at least twice as much as most all Americans if you want to rent a median-priced apartment in America’s most expensive cities.
In just under half of the 50 most populous cities in the US, the cost of housing is unaffordable for most renters, according to a study by Apartment Guide, a rental search website. This finding is based on the idea that rent costs should be only 30% of the family budget, which is a general rule of thumb recommended by personal finance experts.
The following rankings is the salary you would need to keep rental costs at 30% of your total income in the most expensive cities:
| City | Average cost of rent | annual salary required |
| New York N.Y. | $6,351.00 | $254K |
| BostonMass . | $4,700.00 | $188K |
| Oakland Calif. | $4,430.00 | $177.2K |
| San Francisco Calif. | $4,336.00 | $173.4K |
| Los Angeles Calif. | $3,952.00 | $158.1K |
| San Diego Calif. | $3,913.00 | $156.5K |
| Seattle Wash. | $3,614.00 | $144.5K |
| San José Calif. | $3,517.00 | $140.7K |
| Santa Ana Calif. | $2,988.00 | $119.5K |
| Chicago ill. | $2,947.00 | $117.9K |
| Washington DC | $2,830.00 | $113.2K |
| Denver Colo. | $2,763.00 | $110.5K |
| Sacramento Calif. | $2,631.00 | $105.2K |
| Portland Ore. | $2,529.00 | $101.2K |
| Miami Fla. | $2,507.00 | $100.3K |
With rental prices on the rise since last year, affordable rents in already expensive cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have become even further out of reach for many.
New York City tops the rankings: Renters there would have to earn $254,040 in rent to represent just 30% of their budget. That’s almost four times the median annual household income, which is $64,994 according to the most recent data from the US Census Bureau.
And of the 10 most expensive cities, eight would require twice the median annual income to keep rental costs down to 30%.
Large coastal cities dominate the top of the rankings, while smaller cities in the center of the country tend to have lower rental costs. The lowest-ranked city is Wichita, Kansas, where residents only need to earn $28,741 for rental costs to be 30% of their total budget.
However, it’s worth noting that people in big, expensive cities tend to make more money compared to cities in states where both income and housing costs tend to be lower, on average.
Rental data for the rankings is based on Apartment Guide’s rental property inventory for one and two bedroom units from July 2021 to July 2022. Rental prices are a combined average based on the number of units available .
Because it is an average measurement between two types of units, rental prices are likely to skew more than what most people pay, due to a small number of high-income renters paying well above price. medium.
The top 50 cities by population are based on current population estimates from the US Census Bureau.