New Report: Out of Reach 2023: The High Cost of Housing

Posted by National Low Income Housing Coalition on June 20, 2023

NLIHC has released Out of Reach 2023: The High Cost of Housing. Published annually, the Out of Reach report highlights the gulf between the wages people earn and the price of modest rental housing in every state, county, metropolitan area, and combined non-metropolitan area in the U.S. This year’s report shows how high rents resulting from rapid rent growth during the pandemic and the end of many pandemic-era benefit programs are combining to exacerbate the financial insecurity of low-income renters, leading to higher eviction filing rates and increased homelessness in some communities.

Even amid slowing rent growth, low-income renters are facing the effects of a long-standing trend in which rents have risen faster than wages and decent, affordable housing remains out of reach. Like past reports, this year’s report also provides a “Housing Wage” – an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market rent without spending more than 30% of their incomes. Nationally, the 2023 Housing Wage is $28.58 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home and $23.67 for a modest one-bedroom rental home.

In addition to the national Housing Wage, Out of Reach provides Housing Wages for each state, metropolitan area, county, and combined non-metropolitan area within a state. For a modest two-bedroom apartment, the average Housing Wage ranges from $16.27 in Arkansas to $42.25 in California (see map below). States with lower housing costs also tend to have lower wages, so the lowest-wage workers in every state struggle to pay their rent.

Read more and access the report.