Out of Reach 2013

According to Out of Reach 2013, the Housing Wage for New Jersey is $24.84 making it the area the fourth most expensive in the nation. The Housing Wage is the hourly wage a family must earn – working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – to be able to afford the rent and utilities for a safe and modest home in the private housing market.

The report, Out of Reach 2013, is a national study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a Washington, D.C.-based housing policy organization. The report provides the Housing Wage and other housing affordability data for every state, metropolitan area, combined non metropolitan area, and county in the country.

The mean wage for a New Jersey renter is $16.77 an hour, below the housing wage for a modest two-bedroom. At the mean wage, an individual would have to work 59 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent (FMR).  At minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, a New Jersey worker would have to work 137 hours a week or 3.4 full jobs a week to afford a two-bedroom at FMR.

The full data set featuring a ranking of New Jersey's most to least expensive states can be found here.  This data set also includes a top ten ranking of least affordable states as well as a listing of occupations and their wages.  Click here to view a fact sheet of New Jersey's data and comparison chart here.  National data available at http://nlihc.org/oor/2013. 

Click here to read a news release on Out of Reach 2013.

Archived Out of Reach Data:
2008          2009          2010          2011          2012