"As rents climb, the once-romanticized vision of living alone and eating your first cup of noodles in an unfurnished apartment recently started to feel like a dream of the past. But now, the rent-burdened generation may see some hope. The " Carrie Bradshaw Index," (named after the fictional Sex and the City character), released by The Economist, ranks 100 of the country's major cities by affordability for people who are chasing that solo-living dream, from the most expensive to the least."
"To measure affordability, they used a rule that the tenant should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on rent, a recommendation which has been more or less not followed now by Gen Z). Then, the study used online rental marketplace Zumper to calculate the rent price and salary needed to afford a studio apartment in the city that was measured."
"For the second year in a row, Wichita, Kansas, had a score of about 1.75. It may not be the first city everyone dreams of to live in solo, but it's one of the only cities where median wages (calculated as $58,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) are 75% higher than what is needed to afford an average studio apartment."
The Carrie Bradshaw Index ranks 100 major U.S. cities by affordability for solo renters using a 30% rent-to-income rule and Zumper rental data. Cities receive a score equal to median annual wage divided by required income to keep rent at or below 30% of gross income; scores above 1 indicate affordability. Wichita, Kansas, led with a score near 1.75, with median wages about $58,000 and average studio rent $585. Other top affordable cities include Baton Rouge and Lincoln ($715 rent, $28,600 required), Des Moines ($735 rent, $29,400 required), and Akron ($725 rent, $29,000 required).
Read at Fortune
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