The Cities Where Middle-Income Renters Have The Best And Worst Housing Options

Housing policy experts describe housing affordability using the concept of "rent burden." If your rent costs 30% or more of your pretax income, then you're considered burdened. So which cities make it easiest to find apartments that won't leave you rent burdened? Real estate website RentCafé looked at the rents of apartments and houses in the 50 biggest cities in the country to find out what percentage of them would leave a median-income renter unburdened. And it turns out median-income renters have the most affordable housing options in Raleigh, North Carolina — with San Francisco coming in a close second.

Given all the talk about the high cost of living in San Francisco, it may be surprising to learn that a median-income renter can afford to live in 68% of rental homes there. But it starts to make sense when you look at what "median income" means in San Francisco (hint: it's quite high):

First of all, the median renter household income clocks in at $92,123, almost 2.4x the national level. The favorable labor market conditions have of course affected this figure directly, but as an indirect effect they have also pushed the median home price to $1.5M. This makes renting the only way to go for many — even for those with paychecks that most homeowners elsewhere in the country only dream about. With the barrier to entry at a dizzying height, some 65% of the city's population now lives in rental homes and San Francisco has become a city of wealthy renters. 

[RentCafé]

RentCafé also rounded up the cities with the fewest housing options for middle-income renters, and New Orleans and Philadelphia are tied for worst.

Check out RentCafé's full blog post about housing accessibility in big cities to find out how your city stacks up.