US Housing Wage (2br) keeps on going up. $22.40/hr for Mass?!

[JanMichael]

What a wonderful trend! Since layoffs and underemployment are going up at the same time things just couldn't get any better...

http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/

Increase in National Housing Wage since 1999.
http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/increase.pdf

http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/cover.pdf

How to use the wage/rent tables: http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/howtouse.htm

Hours you'd have to work at a minimum wage job in order to rent a two bedroom home by state.
http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/workhours.pdf

You can get the Housing Wage for your own state, county or city, on the left side of the main page. This is what I got for Sarasota, FL. http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/data.php?getstate=on&getmsa=on&msa%5B%5D=sarasotabradenton&state%5B%5D=FL

$13.62/hr for a modest 2br...

[JanMichael]

1. How much an hour do you need?

$10?

$15?

$20?

[bicentennial_baby]

2. But

it also depends on where you live in the state. For instance, in MA where I live, it's $13.77, as compared to $22.40 for the state as a whole.

http://www.nlihc.org/oor2003/data.php?getstate=on&getcounty=on&county%5B%5D=franklinctynonmetroportion&state%5B%5D=MA

[JanMichael]

3. I know.

That why I loaded it up with the links, so people could see where their MSA or county ranked;-)

[bicentennial_baby]

6. Well thank you

I find this stuff really interesting...Btw, I'd love to live in Boston, but there's no way in hell I could ever afford to! :P

[Langis]

4. $16.06

For Phoenix, that's about right I would say.

[Sal316]

5. Thanks for the info.

I tell ya.. DU'ers are so money when it comes to finding stuff like this.

[JanMichael]

7. Welcome!

I wonder if this will be deemed "newsworthy" by the gods of the Media?

[cally]

8. When I travel, I

notice that most people live in more sane housing than we expect and live in here. This gap in affordibility is because of not earning a living wage, but also in the affordability of housing. I think the type of housing and the cost, needs to be reconsidered.

For instance, in Turkey we drove past the elite housing subdivision. I know the richest live well, but this was the elite bureaucrats and business leaders. The houses were about 2000 square feet and had no yard. In Greece, a man proudly showed off his house and it was about 1200 to 1500 square foot condo. I would be thrilled to live in either place, but in the US the upscale communities are 3000 to 4000 sq foot homes with yards. Even in the so called affordable communities, the homes are 1200 to 1500 square feet and have two baths with a yard. Oh, then the roads, driveways and garages. The size of the roads are obscene. It takes up so much land. If you look at housing in the US even 50 years ago, it was much different and much cheaper to build compared to now.

[JanMichael]

9. That was my experience in Poland.

Up until recently there were very few mega McMansions being built.

They still have upscale areas but the emphasis is on the interior not the exterior of the dwelling...

[JanMichael]

10. Kicked for comments.

:kick:

[tkmorris]

11. Palm Beach County Florida.......

That's where I live.

My eldest daughter is convinced she is going to move out at 18 and go to college while working to pay for her own place. I keep telling her she's nuts but somehow this 11th grader taking Trigonometry can't understand the math that makes this impossible. I'm saving this page to show her.

For a one bedroom apartment in this area, earning minimum wage, she would have to work 99 hours a week. 99. I expect she can make a bit more than that but.......wow.

Great site, thanks for sharing it.

[JanMichael]

13. PBC? I used to live in Wellington.

Also Lake Worth and Boca Raton (FAU).

Good luck with your daughter, sometimes it's tough to keep up the school work while paying rent and being young, once derailed it's not easy getting back on the tracks.

[grasswire]

12. excellent resource, thanks

I'm passing this on to a lot of people.

[JanMichael]

14. Cool!

It's a pretty easy to understand explanation of the housing/wage relationship.

I hoped that it would get more responses but apparently people are stuck in bash mode and real life issues are moot:shrug: