In Many Cities, Rent Is Rising Out of Reach of Middle Class
Photo
Christine Menedis tours a condominium in
Miami Beach that rents for $7,000 a month. In Miami, average rents
consume 43 percent of the typical household income, up from a historical
average of just over a quarter. Credit Angel Valentin for The New York Times
MIAMI
— For rent and utilities to be considered affordable, they are supposed
to take up no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. But that
goal is increasingly unattainable for middle-income families as a
tightening market pushes up rents ever faster, outrunning modest rises
in pay.
The strain is not limited to the usual high-cost cities like New York and San Francisco. An analysis for The New York Times by Zillow,
the real estate website, found 90 cities where the median rent — not
including utilities — was more than 30 percent of the median gross
income.
In
Chicago, rent as a percentage of income has risen to 31 percent, from a
historical average of 21 percent. In New Orleans, it has more than
doubled, to 35 percent from 14 percent. Zillow calculated the historical average using data from 1985 to 2000.
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