Many people in my country probably share something in common with many others in the world: they want to live the American dream. And so, they pursue that dream through whatever means that's available to them. If an opportunity to work in the medical field, for example, opens up, many doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals apply for those jobs because they strongly believe that life in the US would be much better than life here.
Although it is true that the standard of living in the US is miles above our country's standard of living, people forget that there are other factors they need to consider when chasing after their dream or pursuing a career overseas. One of the biggest considerations is a place to live and the monthly rent one needs to pay.
The fact that rent is pretty expensive and getting increasingly unaffordable is not exclusive to the US. Many other major cities all over the world face the same issues. Tokyo, Seoul, London, Singapore, Paris, Amsterdam - these are only some of the major cities in the world where rent is sky high, and we shouldn't be surprised about that. The more densely populated an area is, the higher the rental costs would be as there would be a higher demand for housing.
The same is true for the US, especially if a dreamer is eyeing to live in a major city. Redfin conducted a survey to see in which cities in the US would be the most difficult and most unaffordable for people to rent an apartment. And the results are probably what you would expect if someone were to ask you, "Which city in the US has the most expensive rent?"
Of course, topping the list is New York City which requires one to have at least a $119,120 annual salary, with the median price of apartments being $2,978. Among all 33 major cities that Redfin analyzed, New York came out with the biggest gap (of 43.5% less than what they need) between a renter's median household income ($67,358) and the minimum household income one must receive to be able to afford an apartment in New York.
The following four cities in order are: Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Although these cities aren't arranged in order of how much the median asking price for an apartment is, they are, however, arranged according to the gap existing between a renter's median household income and the minimum household income required for them to be able to rent an apartment in the respective cities.
In order, these cities came out with these gap figures: 42.2%, 38.7%, 36.1%, and 30.8%. But if we were to look at merely how much the median price of an apartment would be in each of these cities, it would be as follows: $2,486 in Miami, $2,835 in Boston, $2,811 in Los Angeles, and $2,312 in Riverside. The gap figures take into account how much disposable income each person has, which affects the quality of life they can afford.
Despite this disparity, there are plenty of ways for people to find affordable housing and still be able to find a nice job in those cities. Whether it would be practical to take an hour or longer commute is within their discretion. But sometimes, people will just take their chances and hope they're able to make it through.
(Image credit: Sergio Arteaga/Unsplash)