PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Feel like it’s getting more expensive to rent an apartment in Portland? You’re not alone, according to a new report, which found Portland ranks as No. 14 on the list of cities where residents have to earn the most money to afford their rent.
ApartmentGuide.com, powered by apartment search engine and online marketplace Rent, conducted a study on the 50 biggest cities in the U.S. based on the rent prices for an average one and two-bedroom apartment. They calculated how much a resident would need to earn to afford their rent, using the rule that rent should be 30% of an individual’s income.
At No. 14, Portland’s average rent for one and two-bedroom apartments stood at $2,529. This is a 13.91% increase in price from last year.
According to these calculations, Portlanders would need a salary of $101,171 to afford the average rent. That salary is almost $40,000 higher than the average median household salary of $64,994, reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The salary requirement in Seattle, which came in at No. 7, is even higher, which ApartmentGuide.com calculated to be $144,549. The report calculated the change in rent year-over-year increased by a whopping 45.21%.
Including Portland and Seattle, nine of the top 15 cities were on the West Coast. See the rest of the cities on the list here.