Report: $60/Hour Needed To Afford 2-Bedroom San Francisco Apartment
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A new survey finds prospective renters would need to earn $60 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual "Out of Reach" report Wednesday. It calculates how much a full-time worker must earn to afford a two-bedroom apartment at what HUD determines as a "Fair Market Rent," without spending more than 30 percent of their income.
Perhaps not surprising to prospective Bay Area renters, the San Francisco market (San Francisco and San Mateo counties) had the highest "housing wage" in the country. A renter would need to earn $60.02 an hour ($124,840 a year) to afford the fair market rent of $3,121 a month.
The San Jose market had the second highest housing wage in the U.S., where a renter would need $48.50 an hour for a two-bedroom apartment going for $2,522 a month.
Meanwhile, prospective renters in the East Bay would need $44.79 an hour or an annual income of $93,160 for the fair market rent of $2,329 a month, the third highest housing wage in the nation.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area, the group found renters in the fire-impacted Napa and Santa Rosa areas would need to earn more than $30 an hour for a two bedroom ($30.29 and $35.44, respectively.)
The Vallejo-Fairfield area had the lowest housing wage in the Bay Area, where an hourly wage of $25.79 is needed for a two-bedroom apartment going for $1,341 a month.
Nationally, the group found no metropolitan area in the country where a full-time worker making the federal minimum wage of $7.25 can afford a two-bedroom apartment. The national housing wage for a two bedroom is $22.10 / hour.