Here’s how much a Lexington resident needs to make to rent a 2-bedroom in the city

Meredith Howard

Full-time workers must earn an hourly wage of $25.82 on average to afford a two-bedroom rental home in the U.S., according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

In Kentucky, the wage required to afford rental housing is $16.18, according to the report.

Kentucky’s non-tipped minimum wage is the same as the federal government’s, at $7.25. Tipped workers can make a base rate as low as $2.13 an hour in Kentucky and in 15 other states with federal minimums.

The coalition publishes the “Out of Reach” report annually to document the “significant gap between renters’ wages and the cost of rental housing across the United States.”

The 2022 report defined affordable housing as costing no more than 30% of someone’s income. Full-time work refers to someone working 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, and the report included rent affordability information for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and metropolitan areas.

While Kentucky has only the 47th-highest “housing wage” (the hourly wage someone needs to earn to be able to afford a rental home) in the U.S., a commonwealth resident would have to work 89 hours per week at the non-tipped minimum wage to afford two-bedroom housing.

It’s important to note the numbers given by the NLIHC are averages, and the statewide numbers include rental markets where the cost of living is significantly higher or lower than most areas in Kentucky.

What do Lexington residents need to make to afford housing?

Lexington metro area zip codes have housing wages ranging from $15.77 to $24.81.

Residents in 40516 need to make about $19.23 an hour to afford a two-bedroom rental, while 40502 renters need to make an hourly wage of $21.35.

Nicholasville residents in 40356 need to make $15.77 for a two-bedroom rental, or $12.69 for one-bedroom housing. Renters in 40347 have a housing wage of $17.69 for a two-bedroom and $14.42 for a one-bedroom.

Here’s a list of two-bedroom housing wages for Lexington metro area zip codes, from the report:

  • 40507: $15.96

  • 40508: $16.35

  • 40504: $16.15

  • 40505: $16.54

  • 40526: $18.08

  • 40513: $23.08

  • 40514: $24.81

  • 40515: $20.77

  • 40517: $18.46

You can search for more data on housing affordability by zip code online from the NLIHC.

The median per capita income for a resident of the Lexington-Fayette area is about $17.05 an hour, using yearly salaries from the U.S. Census Bureau. The commonwealth’s median per capita hourly wage is about $14.

Do you have a question about Lexington or Kentucky for our service journalism team? We’d like to hear from you. Fill out our Know Your Kentucky form or email ask@herald-leader.com.

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