Hiya, Columbia. 👋 The National Low Income Housing Coalition just released a new study that reports the gap between renters’ wages + the cost of rental housing across the US. 🏠
Which got us thinking — how much does it cost, on average, to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the Columbia area? 🧐 Let’s break it down, by the numbers.
💰 $931. The Fair Market Rental (FMR) price (including utilities) for a two-bedroom apartment in the Columbia Metropolitan area. In SC, the FMR for the same-sized apartment is $900.
💰 99. The number of hours you’d have to work per week on minimum wage (in SC this is $7.25) to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Columbia. A renter that makes a mean wage would need to work 49 hours a week to afford the same-sized apartment.
💰 2.5. The number of full-time jobs – at minimum wage – it takes to afford a two-bedroom apartment (FMR) in Columbia.
💰 0.2%. The percent that Columbia’s rents have increased over the past month, according to Apartment List.
💰 $17.90. The hourly wage a Columbia resident would have to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city. That’s a yearly income of $37,240.
💰 41%. The percent of Columbia’s population currently renting. Out of 150,309 households in the city, 61,859 rent.
💰 31. South Carolina currently ranks as the 31st most expensive state for renters in the country for renters. Hawaii is the most expensive + Arkansas is the least expensive.
For more city data, state data, and to compare with other metropolitan areas, go here and click around. It’s really fun to put our numbers beside Hawaii’s. 💸