A new report has found that rental prices are out of reach for many United States workers and Connecticut ranks the ninth highest for how much money you need to earn to afford to rent a home here.
The average fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Connecticut is $1,295, according to “Out of Reach,” a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
That means your household would need to earn $4,317 per month, or $51,799 per year, to afford a two-bedroom without spending more than 30 percent of your income on housing.
To further break that down, you would need to make around $24.90 per hour to afford to rent an average two-bedroom home, the report finds.
Workers who make just the minimum wage of $10.10 would need to work 99 hours per week, or work two full-time job and one part-time job to afford a fair-market rate two-bedroom rental home.
Local
The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics report from May 2017 lists the median hourly wage in Connecticut as $22.05, the mean hourly wage as $28.56 and the annual mean wage as $59,410. Take a closer look at the numbers here.
The "Out of Reach" report goes on to say affordable rent for workers who make minimum wage in Connecticut is $525 per month, while a worker making $17.38 could afford a rental that costs $904 per month.
Of course, rents vary in different parts of the state and the report finds these are the most expensive regions of Connecticut to rent in:
- Stamford-Norwalk, where you would need to earn $38.19
- Danbury: $30.94 per hour
- Southern Middlesex County: $26.65 per hour
- Milford-Ansonia-Seymour: $25.19 per hour
- New Haven-Meriden: $24.98 per hour
