The salary you need to afford rent in every state, ranked

You need a six-figure salary to keep rent costs below 30% of your income in California.Irina Klyuchnikova/Shutterstock

• Renters have their work — or wallets — cut out for them.
• GoBankingRates recently revealed the salary renters need to afford rent for a single-family home in every US state.
• In some states, renters need to earn as much as $100,000. Only four states have a median rent less than $1,000.

Being a renter these days isn’t fun.

Renters spent a record amount of money on housing in 2017, and in some cities, they’re dealing with climbing rents.

So just how much of your income should you plan to shell out for rent? The answer depends on where you live.

GoBankingRates recently revealed how big your annual salary needs to be to afford rent in every US state, including Washington, DC. To determine the list, they used the budget rule of thumb that one should spend no more than 30% of annual income on housing.

They then found the median rent for a single-family residence in each state using the Zillow Rent Index, and calculated how much annual income one needs for rent costs to equal less than 30%.

The top-five states where you need to earn the most money to afford rent are all coastal — and you need to earn six figures to rent in the top two, California and Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the top-five states where you need the lowest salary to pay rent are in the South or Midwest. Four of these are the only states on the list with a median rent less than $1,000, meaning one can earn less than $40,000 and still afford rent.

From Florida to New York, see the salary you need to afford rent in every state, ranked from lowest to highest. Note that these figures are recent as of July 2018.