We Bet That Renters In Buffalo Don’t Know This

Thousands upon thousands of residents across Western New York who don’t own their own homes feel the pain of having to fork over a check to a landlord for rent every month. Paying rent is just one of those things that’s impossible to avoid, but having a safe place to lay your head down at night is a fundamental human necessity. 

Rent takes a huge chunk of the paychecks of hard-working Buffalo employees every single month, and just like several cities across the U.S., the cost of rent keeps getting higher while the wages workers stay the same. It makes it incredibly hard to try and cover all of the other things we need to survive, like food, healthcare, and future savings.

Long-standing advice from finance experts suggest that the average person spends no more than 30% of their income on housing, but many consider that “tip” out of date based on the average price of rent. Good luck finding an apartment or home that meets that criteria.

However, it turns out that according to a recent real estate study, our fair Queen City actually comes pretty close. 

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Buffalo, New York Is The Cheapest City For Renters In The U.S.

Real estate company Clever looked at minimum-wage employees across the country to see which city was the most affordable when it comes to rent. 

After analyzing data from sources like the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Labor Department, they found that workers in the 716 spent the least of amount of their gross wages on rent, naming reasons like lower-cost housing and the higher-than-average state minimum wage rate ($15 per hour here in New York State). 

The study also shows that the average rent for a typical one-bedroom apartment here in Buffalo (approximately $1,001) takes up the smallest percentage (39%) of a local full-time minimum-wage worker’s income. 

Can we be real, though?  The cost of rent in the City of Good Neighbors still isn’t exactly cheap. If the old advice of what makes an apartment “affordable” is 30% or less of one’s income, rent still takes a more-than-huge chunk out of a local worker’s take-home pay.