For millions of Americans living in busy cities, splitting rent with one or two roommates is a burdensome necessity in order to afford an apartment. However, if you want to find your own place, you may have to move.
A new study has calculated the best and worst cities in America where you can afford a studio apartment. New York City is considered the most difficult place to live alone due to its sky-high rents and average wages.
Residents in the Big Apple must earn a staggering $140,000 to comfortably afford a studio, and the East Coast hub is joined by neighboring cities Jersey City and Miami, Florida, which have the cheapest individual apartments compared to the average wage .
However, among the 100 U.S. cities that made up The Economist’s study, the Midwest emerged victorious, with metros like St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit offering the best value.
Not surprisingly, New York City is the least affordable city in America for people living alone
It’s no secret that the cost of living in a big city has skyrocketed in recent years.
According to financial services company Moody’s, the average share of rental income reached 30 percent last year, the highest level in 25 years.
The study used median rental prices from real estate platform Zumper and wage data from the American Bureau of Labor Statistics to calculate the affordability of America’s 100 largest cities.
Anyone who spends more than 30 percent of their income on rent is considered “rent burdened,” and anything else is considered a comfortable “affordable studio wage,” based on average studio rental prices across the country in July 2023.
By looking at this number and the varying wage rates across the country, it then determined the ratio of the average salary in each city to the salary required to comfortably afford the rent for a studio apartment.
Cities with a ratio above one are struggling, with a value below one being a good sign that residents have a little extra money for a rainy day.
In the Big Apple, it has been determined that renters must earn at least $140,000 to live comfortably on their own.
This number is a staggering $82,610 more than the city’s average wage, a ratio of just 0.4.
Across the Hudson River, buying a one-bedroom apartment in Jersey City costs a lucrative salary of $119,000, but the median wage for residents is over $61,000 lower.
The ten cities with the worst single living rates also include Boston, Miami and Washington DC, where renters all have to earn far more than the national average to live alone.
Of the 100 cities included in the study, 57 require salaries that are above the national average.
This included Charlotte, North Carolina, which was one of the fastest growing cities in America in 2022, driving up prices and reaching a ratio of 0.72.
On the other end of the spectrum, renters in Lincoln, Nebraska only need to earn $29,240 to afford their own apartment.
In Jersey City, renters must earn a lucrative salary of $119,000 to live comfortably on their own
Residents of Miami, Florida are also in one of the least affordable metropolitan areas in America, where you have to earn $45,000 more than average to afford a studio
With an average wage in the city that was $15,690 higher, it ranked first in the study as the most affordable city.
This was followed by Whichita, Kansas and Des Moines, Iowa, which had a ratio of 1.45 and 1.43, respectively.
While Los Angeles and New York City have fared poorly due to their sky-high rents and costs of living, both cities have affordable options right on their doorstep.
In New York State, it costs over $100,000 less to comfortably afford a studio apartment in the city of Rochester.
In Bakersfield, about two hours from LA, residents enjoy some of the lowest affordable studio wages on the West Coast at $42,000.