Minimum salary needed to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Illinois: $22.77 an hour

[August 27, 2022]  By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – A nationwide survey says that renters in Illinois need salaries of $22 to $25 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

The annual survey named Out of Reach is a joint venture of Housing Action Illinois and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Median rents for two-bedroom apartments in Illinois increased nearly 18% between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, the report said.

“Rents are too high. Something needs to be done to contain rental prices,” John Bartlett, executive director of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization in Chicago, told The Center Square.

The demise of mom-and-pop landlords is one reason for high rents, Bartlett said. Single buyers for two-flats and small multi-family properties have been shut out of the market in the past 12 years by corporate real estate companies who outbid the little guys and pay cash for properties, Bartlett said.

“Large corporate entities are running the rental housing market. They own 58% of all rental housing units,” Bartlett said.

The mom-and-pops are going away, he said.

“It’s tough being a small landlord these days,” Bartlett said. “That is unfortunate because the small mom and pops provide affordable housing. They live in one unit and rent out the other. Because they know the tenants, they tend to keep prices down a little because they see the advantage of keeping someone for a long period of time.”

Minimum wage earners in Illinois make $12 an hour. A 40-hour work week at $12 an hour won’t pay the rent on a modest one-bedroom apartment in Illinois, the Out of Reach report said. In Chicago, starting salaries are higher – $15.40 in the city and $13.35 in Cook County. But that is not enough to afford the rent on a modest, two-bedroom apartment.

A full-time worker in Chicago needs to make $25.77 an hour to be able to pay the rent on a modest two-bedroom apartment, the report said.

The Metropolitan Tenants Organization has found that a lot of people are paying 40% and 50% of their take home pay for housing. Bartlett said that situation is not tenable.

“Everybody runs into a crisis at some point,” Bartlett said.

If a person is paying 50% of their income in rent and their car breaks down, they can wind up getting evicted, he said.

“With an eviction on your record, that makes it even harder to rent,” Bartlett said.

A permanent housing stock of affordable housing would pay off in lower crime rates and stronger communities, Bartlett said.