The Economist has created a series of visualizations tracking rent affordability in the United States. One visualization compares median wages (depicted in blue) with the wages necessary for affordable rent of a studio apartment (depicted in red) in major cities in 2022. These affordable rent wages represent the income a renter would need to earn to spend only 30 percent of their salary on rent for a studio apartment. According to the visualization, New York City’s renters face the most significant disparity between median wages and affordable rent wages. They would need to earn $82,610 beyond the median wage in order to afford a studio apartment. In contrast, renters in Portland, Oregon experience the smallest difference between median wages and affordable rent wages. They would only need to earn $20 more than the median wage to afford a studio apartment.
Visualizing Affordable Rent Wages
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