Looking to rent a two-bedroom apartment?
Depending on the state, you’d need to earn at least more than $20 an hour and as much as more than twice that amount from a full-time job, according to a new study done by the South Carolina-based Bluefield Realty Group.
The state where an average two bedroom apartment required the highest hourly wage? Massachusetts, where the study calculated it would take earnings of $56.15 an hour to cover the average $2,920 rent.
California wasn’t far behind, with a $50.67 hourly wage needed to pay the average $2,635 rent.
The nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.; New Jersey and New York rounded out the list of the five states requiring the highest earnings, based on the oft-cited rule that housing costs shouldn’t exceed 30% of gross income and rental data from the RentCafe.com.
At the bottom of the list is Oklahoma, where renters still have to make at least $20.56 an hour to afford the average $1,069 rent payment. South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia and Arkansas were also in the Top 5 least expensive states.
So where does Utah rank on the list? Smack-dab in the middle, at No. 26, with renters needing minimum hourly earnings of $31.27 to handle the average rent payment of $1,626 on a two-bedroom apartment.
“Americans are facing a housing affordability crisis like never before,” Bluefield Realty Group spokesperson Michael Smith said in a news release. “In many states, even a modest two-bedroom apartment demands an income far beyond what the average worker earns.”
Smith said the “gap is unlikely to close anytime soon,” given rents are being pushed upward across the country by supply constraints, inflation and demand, costs that are expected to continue rising.
“Renters can take small but meaningful steps to ease the pressure,” Smith suggested, such as cutting back on non-essentials, “sharing costs with a roommate, negotiating down monthly bills, or picking up extra income where possible.”