John Bogna
A recent study by financial firm SmartAsset reportedly ran the numbers on how many hours of work it would take to afford rent in the 25 biggest American cities, including Houston.
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According to its study, “the rent problem seems to be worst in big cities,” with California charting over 50 percent of its renters as burdened by the cost of their homes.
This is how many hours you must work to pay the rent in Houston https://t.co/8IXE7YXxqt via @culturemap
— Tom Gaede (@TomErgoman) February 21, 2018
To calculate how much of people’s paychecks go toward rent every month, using U.S. Census data, SmartAsset analysts reportedly looked at average hours worked per year, average earnings per year and average monthly rents.
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Per the results, California cities took the top three spots for the cities, where it takes the most hours of work to pay rent, and Houston came in at number eight on the list – the only Texas city to make the top 10.
According to CultureMap, despite Houston’s relatively low average income cancels out the benefit of low rents and lack of state income tax.
Houstonians still, on average, allocate 66 hours per month of their check go to pay the rent, assuming an average take home pay rate of $14.36 an hour after taxes.
Housing Trends: U.S. Single-Family Rents Up 2.7 Percent Year Over Year in November – Houston Rent Growth Remains Strong Due to Hurricane Harvey National rent growth decelerated in November 2017 compared with November 2016 High-end segment growth accel… https://t.co/h0LppFc6wG
— GerardPropertyGroup (@GerardProperty) February 21, 2018
Dallas and San Antonio didn’t end up in the top 10, but both cities still reportedly require workers making average pay to clock 60+ hours at their job per month to pay rent, assuming an average hourly wage of $15.36 and $14.36, respectively.
If you want to work less for rent, according to analysts’ findings, Indianapolis may be you best, cheapest bet; the numbers show it takes just one week of work there to pay for housing.
https://twitter.com/HoustonNewMedia/status/954096437926809602
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