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Mar. 21, 2013 11:30 am

Baltimore city second-most expensive place for renters [REPORT]

Baltimore is “the second-most expensive area for renters, just behind the Washington, D.C., area,” according to the Baltimore Business Journal. The Journal story cites the new “Out of Reach 2013″ report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The NLIHC determines annually the full-time hourly wage someone must earn to afford an apartment at the Fair Market [...]

The hours of minimum-wage work needed to afford rent in a two-bedroom apartment at FMR in all 50 states.

Baltimore is “the second-most expensive area for renters, just behind the Washington, D.C., area,” according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

The Journal story cites the new “Out of Reach 2013″ report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The NLIHC determines annually the full-time hourly wage someone must earn to afford an apartment at the Fair Market Rent (or FMR, determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) without spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

Read the report here.

Here’s some of the breakdown around two-bedroom apartments for Maryland state:

  • The FMR for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,273.
  • To afford that, a person must earn at least $50,905, or the equivalent of working 3.4 minimum-wage jobs.
  • That equates to 135 hours of work per week, bearing in mind that the NLIHC assumes people will spend no more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

It’s routine for people touting Baltimore’s tech scene to make mention of the city’s lower cost of living compared with New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, where average one-bedroom rents can cost upwards of $3,500.

But perhaps the most important statistic is one not revealed in the report, but rather at last July’s Data Day: more than 50 percent of renters in Baltimore city spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

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Andrew Zaleski is Technically Baltimore's lead reporter. Before joining Technically Baltimore, he was digital media editor for Urbanite magazine. He graduated from Loyola University Maryland in May 2011

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  • http://twitter.com/ecogordo Gordon Steen

    This is an important story, because if we squeeze people out of the market, not only do we hurt people at the lower end of the income scale, we also lose their creative input.

  • craigpurcell

    How man peope have roomates?