---
title: Average American Must Earn $40k Per Year To Afford A Two-Bedroom
description: Renters must earn $20.60 an hour to comfortably afford a two-bedroom.
authors:
  - name: Ian Salisbury
    role: Senior Editor
    url: https://money.com/author/ian-salisbury-2/
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    at_money_since: 2013
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      - Economy and Politics
      - Investing
      - Lifestyle
      - Loans
      - Mortgages
      - Personal Finance
      - Retirement
      - Shopping
      - Taxes
    former_staff: true
published: '2016-05-26T21:16:07.000Z'
modified: '2016-05-26T21:16:07.000Z'
section: Housing
tags:
  - apartment rental
  - housing cost
  - real estate
  - rents
word_count: 158
canonical: https://money.com/rents-rising-faster-than-wages/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
---

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![victorian houses in san francisco](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-462556211.jpg)
*You need to earn nearly $29 an hour to afford a two-bedroom in Calif.*

With rents climbing ever higher, it's getting harder and harder for Americans to afford comfortable living space -- like a typical two-bedroom apartment.

This year the average American needs to earn $20.30 an hour -- the equivalent of $40,600 a year, based on a typical 40-hour work week -- to comfortably rent a two bedroom apartment, [according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition](http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/05/the-hourly-wage-needed-to-rent-a-2-bedroom-apartment-in-2016-mapped/484091/). That's up that's up nearly 5% from 2015, when it was $19.35 an hour.

By contrast the average hourly wage in the U.S. [rose 2.2% last year](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-fed-analysis-idUSKBN0UM1UV20160108).

The NLIHC defined renters as "comfortably" affording an apartment when housing costs did not exceed 30% of their income.

To be sure, not all regions of the country are equal when it comes to housing costs. In California, it takes hourly earnings of $28.59 to comfortably afford a two-bedroom. In New York it's $26.69. In Arkansas, however, you need to earn just $13.26.

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