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The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

priceonomics.com

61–70 of 154 posts

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#61
post #52
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also weirdly assume you have a 2BR on a single income, which is not the norm.

What is the norm? Fewer, or more bedrooms than two?

If you are a family or couple renting a 2BR, you probably have more than one income earner. Exception to this case would be a single parent with children, but that rate is not especially high. And smaller households (i.e., just a couple, or a single mother and one child, etc.) are not especially likely to get a 2BR.

If you are a single person with a single income, you are not renting a 2BR. You might have a roommate, but in that case you are a two income household splitting the rent on a 2BR.

Single income for 2BR is such an odd case to base an entire statistic around.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#62
post #49
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also weirdly assume you have a 2BR on a single income, which is not the norm.

It's a better way to rend in places where that's affordable ;)

Not on a single income, though.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#63
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a better way to rend in places where that's affordable ;)

Not on a single income, though.

I think the person above you is literally saying that in places where it’s cheap enough a single income earner can easily get a 2br. I don’t know how true that is but I believe that’s what they were saying.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#64

70% of rentable units in San Francisco are rent-controlled. I know many very high paid people who pay well below “market rate” for their apartments. If you do it right you can live in SF for less than many “cheaper” cities and yet make much more money.

How do you "do it right?"

Get there first

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#65
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the norm? Fewer, or more bedrooms than two?

If you are a family or couple renting a 2BR, you probably have more than one income earner. Exception to this case would be a single parent with children, but that rate is not especially high. And smaller households (i.e., just a couple, or a single mother and one child, etc.) are not especially likely to get a 2BR. If you are a single person with a single income, you are not renting a 2BR. You might have a roommate,…

Two parents, one working, seems pretty common to me.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#66
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the norm? Fewer, or more bedrooms than two?

If you are a family or couple renting a 2BR, you probably have more than one income earner. Exception to this case would be a single parent with children, but that rate is not especially high. And smaller households (i.e., just a couple, or a single mother and one child, etc.) are not especially likely to get a 2BR. If you are a single person with a single income, you are not renting a 2BR. You might have a roommate,…

If you're in a major city, this is probably a safe assumption, but there are plenty of areas where an extra bedroom is a pretty modest expense. A few years ago I had a nice 2 bedroom apartment right off the campus of a major midwest college for $900 a month - I had a nice king sized bed in the bedroom, and a man cave room with a gaming rig and music gear. It's one of the advantages of living outside of the biggest cities.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#67
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the norm? Fewer, or more bedrooms than two?

If you are a family or couple renting a 2BR, you probably have more than one income earner. Exception to this case would be a single parent with children, but that rate is not especially high. And smaller households (i.e., just a couple, or a single mother and one child, etc.) are not especially likely to get a 2BR. If you are a single person with a single income, you are not renting a 2BR. You might have a roommate,…

>Single income for 2BR is such an odd case to base an entire statistic around.

It may be the wrong choice for this analysis but it's not some weird outlier in many places in the country. Over the years, I've known many single people renting 2BR apartments and even buying houses.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#68
post #3

Really surprised to see Detroit that high on the list. I kind of wonder what the relative availability of jobs in Detroit is vs, say, Dallas or Chicago (which offer some significant lifestyle advantages over Detroit). It would also have been a much better comparison if some approximation of state and local income taxes were factored in.

A booster's 2 cents: Yes, Texas's lack of income tax (and Detroit's city income tax) would certainly catapult Dallas ahead of Detroit on this list if taxes were properly factored in. Detroit is sort of a well-known "sleeper" city that "might be nice to live in someday", but I think word will get out sooner than later that it's got a lot of livability advantages right now. Great arts/food/drink scenes, 4 major sports…

> I'm really not familiar with anywhere else that offers a lot of those amenities without hell traffic or impossibly expensive housing

You pretty much described most non-coastal, decently-sized metros. Maybe missing a sports team here and there, but if these are your general requirements, you'll find lots of places.

Re: The Places in America Where Most Income Goes to Rent

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are a family or couple renting a 2BR, you probably have more than one income earner. Exception to this case would be a single parent with children, but that rate is not especially high. And smaller households (i.e., just a couple, or a single mother and one child, etc.) are not especially likely to get a 2BR. If you are a single person with a single income, you are not renting a 2BR. You might have a roommate,…

Two parents, one working, seems pretty common to me.

From my experience, this is incredibly uncommon in the northeast. I only know one couple like that in NY, and she has a large enough trust fund that neither one of them really needs to work at all. Every other couple with children that I know actually living in the cities are 2 income households. The same holds for everyone I know in Boston.
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