Can you afford to rent in Greenville, SC?

Downtown Greenville | Photo by @james_simpson_photography

Downtown Greenville | Photo by @james_simpson_photography

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Hey, GVL. 👋 The National Low Income Housing Coalition just released a new study that reports the gap between renters’ wages + the cost of rental housing across the US. 🏠 Which got us thinking — how much does it cost, on average, to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville County? Let’s break it down, by the numbers.

💰 $842. The Fair Market Rental (FMR) price (including utilities) for a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville County. In SC, the FMR for the same-sized apartment is $900. Fair Market Rent is established by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and is the rent amount, including utilities (excluding telephone), to rent privately owned, existing, decent, safe, and sanitary rental housing of modest (non-luxury) nature with suitable amenities.

💰 89. The number of hours you’d have to work per week on minimum wage (in SC this is $7.25) to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Greenville County. A renter that makes a mean wage (estimated to be $14.88 in Greenville County) would need to work 44 hours a week to afford the same-sized apartment.

💰 2.2. The number of full-time jobsat minimum wage – it takes to afford a two-bedroom apartment (FMR) in Greenville County.

💰 $16.19. The hourly wage a Greenville resident would have to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the county. That’s a yearly income of $33,680.

💰 33%. The percent of Greenville’s population currently renting. Out of 189,334 households in the county, 63,421 rent.

💰 31. South Carolina currently ranks as the 31st most expensive state for renters in the country. Hawaii is the most expensive + Arkansas is the least expensive.

For more city data, state data, and to compare with other metropolitan areas, go here and click around. It’s really fun to put our numbers beside Hawaii’s. 💸

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