Dream apartments are out of reach for grads

StudyHall.Rocks
The dream apartment is out of reach for many grads.
The dream apartment is out of reach for many grads.
So let’s say you’re graduating tomorrow, and after that you’re off on the great adventure of life. The only problem is: Where are you going to live?

     Options for college graduates are limited, according to the real estate website Trulia.com. Taking into account median incomes for graduates ages 22-25, the website searched for affordable housing in markets around the country. The researchers considered whether the monthly rental payment was less than 31 percent of the metro area’s median income for college grads.
    They found that rental prices are basically out of the question in the country’s top 25 markets – including cities considered the most exciting places to live.
     The most affordable place to live, according to Trulia, is St. Louis. And even there, just 18.6 percent of the rents are affordable for young grads. Next up is Dallas, where 15 percent of rental units are affordable. Then there’s Houston, where only 10 percent of the rents are affordable; in Atlanta, 8.7 percent; and in Phoenix, 8 percent.
     Even so, Trulia points out that in those markets, graduates would need only one roommate to pay the rent comfortably.
     The hip metros where workers get high salaries – New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. -- also have high rents. In San Francisco, the median income is $41,244 for new grads, which sounds good. But the median rent is $3,500 (roughly $42,000 a year) and the income needed to afford that is actually $137,272.
     The least affordable city for college grads is the hip metropolis of Portland, Oregon, where less than 1 percent of the rental units are affordable. A 20-something probably needs two roommates there.
     So be forewarned, grads. You will need a roommate or two. Those college dorms may have prepared you for life outside of college, after all.

     Related:

     Report: Student debt haunts graduates

     Opinion: Digging out from under a student loan