If you’ve ever dreamed of living alone, there’s still hope. It just depends on exactly where you live and how much you can afford to spend on rent.
Last month, The Economist released its annual “Carrie Bradshaw index” ranking 100 of the country’s major cities by affordability for people who want to live alone. It ranked the cities from least affordable to most affordable.
To measure affordability, the rule of thumb is that a tenant should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on rent. Using Zumper for rent prices, the salary needed to afford a typical studio apartment in each city was calculated. Each city was given a “Bradshaw score,” where a value of more than one means an average studio apartment is affordable, and less than one means housing is unaffordable.
One big change in this year’s index is that some cities that were affordable last year have slid into the unaffordable category this year, Lizzy Peet, a data researcher at The Economist, tells CNBC Make It.
“Massive big cities like New York and L.A. are going to be, as expected, less affordable than others,” Peet says. “There’s always going to be demand and pressure on housing in big economic hubs. They have always attracted a lot of demand, which has also pushed up the rent.”
