Citylab published an intriguing story yesterday full of some comparative charts of the renter rates from metro areas around the country. For example, here’s a list of the top and bottom cities for rental vs. home ownership:
Here’s another list showing the percentage of income spent on rent. The Twin Cities is very close to the bottom of the list:
It’s interesting to me because the data runs counter to the narrative about the Twin Cities’ tight rental market and rising burden of affordability for renters.
Here’s what the article’s author, Richard Florida, has to say:
Here we see an interesting pattern. Aside from L.A., the places with the highest rent burdens are Sunbelt tourist and service-oriented metros like Miami and Orlando or hard-hit Rustbelt metros like Detroit, where incomes are already low.
Meanwhile, the bottom ten includes a combination of Midwest metros like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, alongside the energy hub of Houston, and tech hubs like San Francisco and Seattle. New York ranks 15th (with 31.5 percent), while knowledge hubs like Boston and Austin are situated near the middle, with around 30 percent.
What do you think? Do we not have enough rental housing in the Twin Cities? Is the rent indeed too damn high?