RENTERS NEEDED $34.73 AN HOUR FOR A TWO-BEDROOM
The national two-bedroom Housing Wage landed at $34.73 an hour, while the average renter made just $24.84.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition put those numbers side by side in its 2026 Out of Reach report, released July 23, 2026 under the headline “The High Cost of Housing.”
The group calls its central statistic the “Housing Wage.” It is the hourly pay a full-time worker needs to afford a modest rental at HUD Fair Market Rent without spending more than 30% of income on housing.
Fair Market Rent is the government’s estimate of what a family moving today can expect to pay for a modestly priced rental in a given area.
How far renters fell short
The average renter’s paycheck did not cover a two-bedroom at Fair Market Rent in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, NLIHC said.
The gap also showed up in everyday jobs. Of the 25 most common U.S. occupations, 18 had median wages below the two-bedroom Housing Wage, according to the group.
NLIHC has published Out of Reach for years to spotlight the disparity between wages and rental costs. The report includes estimates for every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and local areas.
The group said low-income renters include seniors, people with disabilities, students and single-adult caregivers. Some of them rely on fixed incomes or on low-wage and minimum-wage jobs.
What happened next
On July 27, 2026, NLIHC published a map resource breaking down two-bedroom Housing Wages by location. They ranged from $11.57 in Puerto Rico to $52.79 in California.
NLIHC said lawmakers should expand rental assistance, invest in affordable housing supply and reform programs so they better serve the lowest-income renters.
Its specific recommendations were expanding the national Housing Trust Fund, investing in public-housing capital repairs and reforming housing programs including LIHTC.
NLIHC also said Congress should fully fund the Housing Choice Voucher program to make universal rental assistance possible.
The state pages show how the national figures play out on the ground. In Nevada, the minimum wage was $12, and NLIHC’s Nevada page showed what that buys in the rental market.
On October 15, 2026, NLIHC updated that page. It said a worker earning Nevada’s minimum wage would need to work 93 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom rental at Fair Market Rent.
