U.S. cities where Americans can afford to live alone

In September, Economist It has released its third annual “Carrie Bradshaw index,” named after the protagonist of the hit TV show “Sex and the City.” The report lists U.S. cities where Americans can afford to live alone.

Lizzy Peet, a data researcher at The Economist, told CNBC Make It that she named the series after the character because she lives in a studio apartment in the West Village and is unlikely to be able to afford it on a writer’s salary.

“It all came down to a kind of fast track, to sum up the desire to live alone in a big city for the first time. How much do you need to earn to be able to afford that? And how realistic is that expectation?” he says.

To rank U.S. cities, The Economist used the rule that a renter should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on rent. This, along with using Zumper’s rental prices, led to a calculation of the salary required to afford a typical studio in each city. Each city was given a “Bradshaw point”; A value of more than one meant that the average studio apartment was affordable, and a value of less than one meant that the housing was not affordable.

“Cities that are built a lot or maybe have less demand or maybe less population demand are the cities that look more affordable,” Peet says.

Peet adds that one of the big changes in this year’s index is that some cities that were affordable last year have moved into the unaffordable category this year.

Many cities in Texas, such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin, have moved from being considered affordable to now being considered unaffordable.

“There are a lot of factors at work here. It’s important to know that rental markets can be pretty random but can fluctuate a lot in a very short period of time,” says Peet. “It’s pretty well documented that Texas is seeing this influx of middle-class workers and that’s going to drive up rent.”

In this year’s index, 41 cities were found to be unaffordable, down from 38 last year.

The average monthly rent for studio apartments in Wichita was $580, up 1.64% from last month and down 10.54% year-over-year. Zumper.

Wichita residents need to earn $26,400 a year to afford a studio; That’s $20,250 less than the average salary.

“I’m not that surprised that Wichita is the most affordable city. Most of the cities in the bottom 10 are off-the-beaten path and not major economic powerhouses. It’s an interesting dynamic,” Peet says.

“There are still surprisingly affordable cities that are perhaps less desirable, and vice versa.”

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