NYC Rentals More Affordable Than Houston, Baltimore, Study Finds

NEW YORK – Renting an apartment in New York City is more affordable than finding digs in Houston, Denver or even Virginia Beach according to a new study that looks at the the cost of leases in the nation's cities.

Homes in NYC ranked 18th on the affordability list put together by researchers at the University of Southern California. It found that, in many cities, rising rents were outpacing stagnant salaries to put accommodation costs increasingly out of reach.

The most unaffordable city in the U.S. was Washington, D.C., the study found. California also fared poorly, with four metros ranked among the 10 least affordable. Here's the list:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. San Diego, CA
3. Virginia Beach, VA
4. Los Angeles, CA
5. Riverside-SB, CA
6. New Orleans, LA
7. Miami, FL
8. Denver, CO
9. Houston, TX
10. Sacramento, CA
11. Hartford
12. Baltimore
13. Memphis
14. Richmond
15. Orlando
16. Tampa
17. San Antonio
18. New York

The researchers built what they call the “constant quartile mismatch” indicator to compare rent and income changes from 2000 to 2016 for the top and bottom 25 percent of renters. The release said the indicator provides a more accurate picture of the growing mismatch between increasing rents and incomes in each metropolitan area.

While rent distributions shifted upward in most metros, income distributions improved very little.
Median rent climbed 17 percent, but the median yearly income of renters actually fell 2.5 percent, the researchers found.

Dowell Myers, professor of urban planning and demography at USC, told USC News the affordability problem is “acute among the poorest people,” though it impacts a much broader constituency of people.

“The new findings measure the growing stress felt by renters at all levels of the income distribution, showing how much larger a share are forced into upper rent brackets compared to before,” he said.

In contrast, cities further from the coastline have fared better. Chicago saw its affordability mismatch in the top rental bracket grow by just 14.5 percentage points. In Nashville it was 13.1 points and in Milwaukee it was just 6.8 points. Raleigh ranked as the most affordable major city, with the top rental bracket growing just 3.7 points.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.