New ‘Out of Reach’ report shows how unaffordable rent is by state

To afford a two-bedroom apartment in the state of Florida, you need to make a wage of $21.50 an hour, according to new figures.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual “Out of Reach” report shows just how expensive it is to live in a modest apartment, broken down by state.

There is not one U.S. state where someone working a 40-hour week at a minimum wage of $7.25 can afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment.

The “Out of Reach” report calculates these results by comparing the “gap between wages and the cost of rental housing across the United States.”

“The report’s Housing Wage is an estimate of the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a rental home at HUD’s fair market rent (FMR) without spending more than 30% of his or her income on housing costs.”

Hawaii was the most expensive state while rent in Arkansas was the lowest by comparison.

You can browse the map by state, get interactive data and even select rent averages by a specific zip code here. 

You can read the full report and view detailed data here.