You need three roommates or four jobs to afford a 2-bedroom in Los Angeles: report
LOS ANGELES - Yes, we know we sound like a broken record when we tell you it's expensive to do anything in Los Angeles, especially live here.
Just how expensive is it, you ask? Let's break it down with some numbers.
A typical one-bedroom rental in Los Angeles costs around $1,652, while a two-bedroom costs $2,115 a month, according to Zillow.
With a minimum wage of $15.50, it would take two full-time jobs to afford a one-bedroom, and 2.7 full-time jobs to afford a two-bedroom, a Zillow analysis found.
One bedroom just not going to cut it for you?
Minimum-wage workers need three roommates or four jobs to afford a two-bedroom rental in Los Angeles, according to Zillow.
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Rent affordability is better in cities with higher minimum wages, even in expensive markets, the analysis found.
Only in 10 of the 50 largest U.S. cities can two full-time workers earning minimum wage comfortably afford a typical two-bedroom rental.
That includes cities with relatively inexpensive rent prices, such as Cleveland and Albuquerque, and also cities where a two-bedroom rental costs more than the national average, including Sacramento, Chicago and Minneapolis.
There are six cities where at least four full-time minimum-wage incomes would be needed to reasonably afford a two-bedroom rental: Austin, Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Dallas and Raleigh. All use the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and have been among the hottest housing markets in the country in recent years, according to Zillow.
It takes 2.5 full-time workers on average spending 30% of their income to pay two-bedroom rent in cities with minimum wage set beyond the federal level.
"This is perhaps the only context in which San Francisco is more affordable than San Antonio," said Zillow senior economist Nicole Bachaud. "Renters have been squeezed by record-fast rent growth while incomes haven’t kept up. That’s true for those making minimum wage, but especially so where the minimum wage hasn’t budged for more than a decade."
You can read the full Zillow analysis by tapping or clicking here.