Rising rent and mortgage rates have led to a lack of affordable housing across the U.S., triggering a crisis that has forced people to move away from major cities or order tiny homes for cheap accommodation. In such gloomy times, it may seem surprising that the city with the lowest rents for working-class people is in the state of New York. A study conducted by the listing platform Clever Real Estate shows that the city of Buffalo in upstate New York is indeed the cheapest to rent a home for minimum wage earners. The study looked at the typical rent for units and compared them with the minimum wage across the 50 largest housing markets of the country.
Most Affordable City for Singles
While the city of Buffalo offers low-cost housing options, it is important to note that New York state also offers a relatively strong minimum wage of $15, which is double the federal minimum wage. According to Clever Real Estate, Buffalo’s fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,001, or 39% of the monthly income ($2,600) of a full-time minimum wage worker. This was considerably lower than the second most affordable city on the list, St. Louis, Missouri, where minimum wage workers have to shell out 46% of their monthly income to afford rent.