Renting

In a ranking of housing affordability for singles, Boston is among the worst

Findings suggest that single renters here would have to spend 37.47% of their income to pay for a studio apartment here.

A studio apartment in Boston costs a median price of $2,350. Adobe Stock

December 15, 2023

RentHop’s Singles Index has ranked Boston the fourth least affordable city for singles.

The online rental marketplace named New York City the least affordable and Wichita, Kan., the most affordable in the study, which it released Dec. 5.

Living in the city has its benefits such as an easier commute, extensive job opportunities and a more active social scene, but high rental prices can be a deterrent, especially for singles.

According to RentHop, Boston has one of the highest median non-family incomes: $75,252. Even with a substantial income, a majority of this money goes to rent. The findings of the Single’s Index indicated that single renters here would have to spend 37.47% of their income to pay for a studio apartment.

Here is how Boston stacks up compared with the rest of the nation:

RANK	CITY	Median Single’s Income	Median Studio Rent	Rent as % of Income
1	New York	$55,810	$3,308	71.1%
2	Miami	$48,826	$1,986	48.8%
3	Detroit	$25,449	$895	42.2%
4	Boston	$75,252	$2,350	37.5%
5	Philadelphia	$41,080	$1,264	36.9%
6	Los Angeles	$57,068	$1,750	36.8%
7	Baltimore	$41,671	$1,150	33.1%
8	Virginia Beach	$54,258	$1,475	32.6%
9	Nashville	$52,507	$1,425	32.6%
10	San Diego	$57,232	$1,975	31.5%

RentHop

The findings also suggested that women in the United States have to spend more of their income on their rent compared with men. On average, a single woman spends 1.24 times more of their income on a studio apartment than men. RentHop used Pew Research Center’s data, which indicated that women earned 82 cents to a man’s dollar in 2022. This wage gap proves to be a burden for women trying to afford rent or housing prices on a single income.

Arlington, Texas, was the only city where single women less of their annual income on a studio apartment than men, RentHop reported.

Here’s how that gender gap plays out in Boston:

City	Median Single Male Income	Median Single Female Income	Rent Cost as % of Single Male Income	Rent Cost as % of Single Female Income
Boston	$80,114	$66,383	35.2%	42.5%

Source: RentHop

To conduct the study, RentHop used census data to analyze housing affordability for single-income households across the 50 largest cities in the United States. To compare housing prices, RentHop created a list of all the studio apartments advertised on its website between January 1 and November 30.

The findings were divided into four categories to calculate the rankings.: