Average NYC wage won’t cut it for two-bedroom renters

Source: Urban Institute

A new graphic from the Urban Institute illustrates how renting costs and wages vary from city to city. In New York, a modest two-bedroom apartment will require a renter to earn approximately $55,000 a year, only slightly less than the average wage, according to data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and Occupational Employment Statistics. If you live in the Washington D.C. metro area, you need to earn about $60,000 to afford the rent for a typical two-bedroom apartment, but average earnings there just barely exceed that threshold. The graphic suggests that a typical worker in Oklahoma City or Chicago (the lowest-income cities) could increase his or her wages by relocating to Greater Washington or the Bay Area (the highest-income cities,) but that he or she would end up sacrificing the gains to higher rents.
[MetroTrends]