D.C, Cali, Hawaii: The most expensive places to rent a home

Renting a home isn’t cheap

Stats show that rents rose in 88 percent of major metros last month, and the national average rent has grown nearly 3 percent since last year. But to really understand just how expensive rents have gotten, a recent analysis looked at the income that each state’s average rental home requires.

The clear losers? That’d be renters in Washington, D.C., California and, surprisingly, Hawaii. Hawaiian renters need even more cash than New Yorkers to cover their monthly rents.

The priciest places to rent a home

According to a recent analysis from HowMuch.net, renters in Washington D.C, and California need the highest incomes to afford their state’s average rental house, needing $8,487 and $8,313, respectively.

Not far behind is Hawaii, where renters need more than $7,800 in monthly income. New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Maryland and Connecticut round out the top 10.

Other states where renters need $5,000 or more in income per month ($60,000 per year) include Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Florida, Virginia, New Jersey and New Hampshire.

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Move to the middle

The bulk of the nation’s more affordable rental properties are located in the middle of the country — in the Midwest and Southern regions. In Missouri, for example, renters need just $3,367 a month to rent a home in the state. Rents in Oklahoma and Arkansas are even lower, at just over $3,100.

“There is a decent-sized cluster of states in the middle part of the country across the South where relatively modest incomes afford an average sized rental,” HowMuch’s Raul Amoros wrote. “From Iowa to Alabama, households only need to make less than $3,500 each month, or less than $42,000 a year.”

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To afford the high rents in New York, Hawaii or California? Renters need to make more than twice that.

“Median household income numbers are relatively high in California compared to the rest of the country, standing at about $67,000 a year,” Amoros said. “But pause for a moment and consider what that means: even in a comparatively well-off state, over half the population is considered unable to adequately afford an average rental. There is indeed a real problem with affordable housing when most people can’t actually afford it.”

Get today’s mortgage rates

Ready to get out of the rent race? Then shop around and see what mortgage rates you qualify for today.