clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Report: $132K in income is needed to comfortably rent a two-bedroom in D.C.

That puts the city behind only San Francisco and New York, per a recent study

By Andrew Giambrone
A row of multifamily buildings in Washington, D.C. The buildings are modern, featuring gray and beige colors and lots of windows.
Residential buildings in D.C.
Shutterstock

District renters need to bring in more than $132,000 in annual earnings in order to pay 28 percent of their income or less on the average two-bedroom apartment, says a new analysis from financial advice company SmartAsset. Renters are considered “cost-burdened” by rent when they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs and “severely cost-burdened” by rent when they spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs.

The average rent for a two-bedroom in D.C. is $3,100 a month, or $37,200 a year, according to SmartAsset, which made its calculations using April 2019 data from Zillow. A household therefore has to make $132,857 annually to pay no more than 28 percent of its income for such an apartment. Meanwhile, the median household income in D.C. is about $82,000 a year, says SmartAsset. Only San Francisco and New York outranked the District as pricier among the 25 largest U.S. cities, having average two-bedroom rents of $4,593 and $3,800.

A map of major U.S. cities that require the highest incomes for people to comfortably pay rent for two-bedroom apartments. The map includes San Francisco (number one, $196,843), New York (number two, $162,857), and Washington, D.C. (number three, $132,857
Incomes needed to comfortably afford two-bedroom apartments in major U.S. cities
SmartAsset

“In general, the median income in a city is not enough for the average person to avoid being housing cost-burdened,” SmartAsset finds. “Each of the top 10 cities on our list has a median income that is less than the income needed to pay 28% or less of your income in rent.” Home prices, including rents, in D.C. and across the U.S. have gone up significantly in recent years.

A recent study from listings company RentHop found that median rents for one-bedroom apartments near 71 percent of Metro stops in the region increased between 2018 and 2019. That compared to such median rent increases near 55 percent of Metro stops the year prior.

Next Up In DC Real Estate Market Reports