If you’ve been looking for a home to rent, you’ve probably noticed that prices keep going up and a new report from Zillow reveals just how much. Their research finds that in April, the average U.S. rent increased to just under $2-thousand ($1,997) a month.
So if someone wanted to comfortably afford that price - meaning they wouldn’t be spending more than 30% of their income on rent, they’d need to make almost $80-thousand a year ($79,889). That’s $21,197 more than a prospective tenant would have needed in 2019, an increase of 36%. But in those same five years, incomes haven’t gone up at that pace.
According to Zillow, U.S. rent growth has grown 1.5-times faster than wages. They report that rent has gone up 31.4% since the start of the pandemic, while income has only increased by 23%.
- The real estate company’s research shows rents fell, on a monthly basis, in one metro area - Oklahoma City.
- Rent prices are up from a year ago in 48 of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. and the increases are highest in Providence, Louisville, Buffalo, Cleveland and Hartford.
- The typical rent for a single-family home in the U.S. is now $2,208 as of April.
- Zillow reports that the most affordable metro areas for renters are Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Austin and Raleigh.
- The least affordable are Miami, the New York City metro area, Los Angeles, Riverside (California) and San Diego.
Source: Business Insider