A recent report highlights just how unaffordable housing is in Boston, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
In the Boston area, a person needs to earn in excess of $45-per-hour to afford the average two-bedroom rental.
The report is designed to show the gap between renters’ wages and the cost of rental housing and illustrates how nearly impossible it is for minimum wage earners to afford housing.
In Massachusetts, where the minimum wage is $11-per-hour, a person would need to work 104 hours a week to afford an average two-bedroom rental. The average income in the Commonwealth needed to afford a two-bedroom rental is $28.64 per-hour, the sixth highest housing wage in the country.
Hawaii is the top state, where a person needs to earn $36.13 to afford a two-bedroom rental. The District of Columbia is second at $34.48 and California is third at $32.68.
On average, low-income households of four people earn no more than $26,420 annually and can afford at most $660 per month for housing. The national average fair market rent for a one-bedroom home is $931 per month and $1,149 for a two-bedroom home.
You can view the full report here.
