New report shows rental costs rising as U.S. wages stagnate

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/05/19/267172/new-report-shows-rental-costs.html

By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Washington Bureau
May 19, 2015

For a full-time worker to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment at the federal “fair market rent” and not spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, they must earn $19.35 an hour, according to a new report released Tuesday.

This so-called “housing wage” is 2.7 times greater than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and $4 more than the nationwide average renter’s wage of $15.16 an hour.

Full-time workers need $15.50 an hour just to afford a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market rate and not pay more than 30 percent toward housing, the report found.

That’s why there’s no state where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market value.

Those are some of the main findings from “Out of Reach,” the annual analysis of U.S. rental affordability by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The report suggests that low-wage workers are suffering the most from a shortage of affordable housing as increased demand for apartments drive rental prices higher while wages stagnate for most Americans.

While rents have increased in nearly all metropolitan areas since 2012, 44% of jobs created in the aftermath of the Great Recession pay less than $13.33 an hour.

Of the nation’s 42 million renter households, 25% have incomes at or below 30% of the area median income, the report found. That means they can only afford rents of $509 a month. That’s well below the national fair market rents of $1,006 per month for a two-bedroom apartment and $806 for a one-bedroom unit.

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To view the “Out of Reach” report, go to http://nlihc.org/oor