The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has released its annual “Out of Reach” report. The NLIHC Out of Reach report calls attention to the disparity between wages and the cost of rental housing in the U.S.
Each year the report has shown that affordable rental homes are out of reach for millions of low-wage workers, seniors, families, and other renters. The report’s central statistic, the Housing Wage, is an estimate of the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home at HUD’s fair market rent (FMR) without spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs – the accepted standard of affordability. The FMR is an estimate of what a family moving today can expect to pay for a modestly priced rental home in a given area.
In no state, metropolitan area, or county in the U.S. can a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage, or the prevailing state or local minimum wage afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent. State minimum wages range from $8.75 in West Virginia to $17.50 per hour in the District of Columbia. In 2024, a full-time worker needs to earn an hourly wage of $32.11 on average to afford a modest, two-bedroom rental home in the U.S. and $26.74 to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home.
Information for Illinois data is available below. Comparison data by county can be obtained by using the “Compare Jurisdiction” feature.