If you’re a single renter looking for more affordable cities to live in, you may want to take a close look at Kansas. According to a report by apartment rental company RentHop, Wichita was ranked the most affordable city for a single renter in the U.S. The company conducted the December report by measuring median nonfamily household incomes, city population counts, advertised prices for studio apartments and year-over-year changes to studio prices. The median cost of a studio apartment in the Air Capital is $565 a month, Renthop says in the report, meaning the average person would have to spend 17.65% of their annual income on rent every year. For comparison, New York City is the most expensive place for single renters, according to Renthop, with residents having to spend about 71% of their annual income on rent in the city. According to a separate report from GoBankingRates, the average single person in Kansas needs to make $47,379 annually to live comfortably, which would make the state sixth in the country for lowest living wage. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the median household income in Wichita (in 2022 dollars) is $60,712. The poverty rate in the city sits at 15.5%. While Wichita may have been named the most affordable city by RentHop, the cost of rent is rising across the U.S., including locally. A report from late 2022 from NAI Martens indicates rent prices in Wichita rose 1.8% in 2022 and 9.4% in 2021.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
