An old adage says never spend more than 30% of your income on rent. While you might be able to pull that off in Cedar Rapids, IA, is that even doable in New York City, where average rent for a one-bedroom is around $3k/month? That same squeeze has arrived in Texas. Using data from the American Community Survey, findthehome.com compiled a list of the 50 cities with the highest rent in the US. 7 cities in Texas made the list.
Coming in at No. 44, San Antonio has a median gross rent of $840. Residents pay an average of 44.2% of income on rent, the highest in Texas. San Antonio also came in with the lowest per capita income of any Texas city.
Dallas didn’t fare much better at No. 43, with a median gross rent of $852. Dallas scores well on rent as a percentage of income at 36.6%. Surprisingly, Arlington also made the list at No. 40. The entertainment hotspot had median gross rent of $861. Ownership costs in Arlington are the highest in the state.
Houston came in at No. 39, with median gross rent of $862, or 37% of income. Notably, Houston has the lowest property ownership in Texas, where just 44% of property is owner-occupied. Just above Houston is Corpus Christi at No. 38. Barely making the list (cities had to have over 300,000 residents), Corpus has $872 in median gross rent and 42.5% of income going to housing. Fort Worth was even higher than Dallas at No. 35. With $878 in median gross rent and an average of 42.6% of income spent on rent, Fort Worth is the second-highest city in Texas.
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In what comes as a surprise to no one, Austin ranked highest among Texas cities at No. 16. With a median gross rent of $1,012 and 37.2% of income spent on rent, Austin came in comparatively low to where most experts would place them nationally. Though Austin has the highest rents, its average per capita income of $32,672 is about $5k more than the average of the other Texas metros.
We can still count our blessings in Texas, though. California took the top five spots on the list, with San Francisco crowning it all. (On the flip side, it also had the highest average per capita income at a whopping $49,986.)
After this news, I think I've found my new political party.
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