use this map to show where rents are most affordable compared to your income...

[msongs]

in big cities your rent may be over 40% of your income but there are many places where it will be as low as 15% of your income. but would you want to live in the cheap places...hmmm

https://public.tableau.com/profile/cnbc5283#!/vizhome/AFFORDABLERENTS1/Dashboard1

[exboyfil]

1. $515 median for a 1 BR in Cedar Rapids

Seems a bit low especially when compared to $550 in Huntington, WV. I know both communities, and I would be shocked that housing is more expensive in Huntington.

[Hortensis]

3. No doubt, but probably not free market. Very far from expert here,

but both will very likely fall within HUD and other government-subsidization guidelines. Long ago when I was an appraiser in L.A., the bottom of the scale for rentals was typically $500, no matter how scaggy the property, because that was what government programs would pay.

[jimfields33]

2. 920 for my city

My mortgage is 926. Pretty close and they may want to get a mortgage instead. 1975 square foot 3 bedroom 2 car garage in gated community. The HOA is 105 a month. Still not bad.

[Ron Obvious]

4. And of course figure in transportation costs as well.

Not having a commute would save a lot of money, time, and aggrevation.

I find that a lot of people don't figure that into their equations.

[Mossfern]

5. I don't know about that chart

I don't think there's many 1 bedroom apartments in NYC for $2,100 per month.

[JI7]

10. How much would it be ?

[Mossfern]

11. I looked it up and you can get a studio in Hell's Kitchen

for $2100 - I think. It was a brief search though. One bedroom for $2800. You can get tiny dark apartment with a kitchen the size of a shoe box on Mott Street for about $2100 per month. I just googled 'apartments for rent NYC'. I grew up in NY and moved out to NJ when my oldest was 1 year old - 1979. Didn't want to deal with homeless junkies tripping over his pram.

Culture shock!!!

[smirkymonkey]

12. Yeah, I have my doubts about this as well.

There was no way I could have found a 1BR in NYC for that low when I lived there (unless you were way out in the boroughs) and in Boston I pay $2,100 for a studio. Finding a 1BR in Boston for that much is almost impossible unless you are miles outside the city and it's a dump.

Rents have been going down a little bit since Covid, but still I think these avg 1BR rents are lowballed if you want to live within a reasonable commuting distance of the city centers.

[frazzled]

6. $1580 in my neck of the woods

At least it’s not San Francisco

[FuzzyRabbit]

7. Reminds me of a few years ago

I read that you could buy a nice house in Birmingham, Alabama for under $150,00. So I looked up real estate in Birmingham and sure enough it was true. I figured I could sell my house in Seattle, pay off the mortgage and pay cash for a house in Birmingham.

But then I'd have to live in Birmingham, Alabama.

[msongs]

8. map is from march 2019. nt

[JI7]

9. And people may not make as much money moving to cheaper places

[Ms. Toad]

13. Check your biases.

Aside from noting that the town I live in has average rents of 16% of income, I checked quite a few in the 16-17% range and nothing obviously wrong with any of them.