The average wage needed for Hoosiers to comfortably rent an apartment continues to climb.
A new report on housing affordability in Indiana finds renters now need to make more than $24 an hour to rent a two-bedroom unit. The current average wage of renters in Indiana is about $19 an hour.
Prosperity Indiana Executive Director Aspen Clemons said that's $5 an hour more than the group calculated in its 2023 report.
"It takes more and more for Hoosier renters to be able to afford a modest two-bedroom rental home," Clemons said.
The annual report, called Out of Reach 2026, is compiled by Prosperity Indiana and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
It finds the fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Indiana is $1,255 a month. In order for a renter to afford that without spending more than 30% of their income they would need to make an annual income of $50,183.
The assessment indicates that if someone was being paid the minimum wage in Indiana, which is $7.25, they would need to work 3.3 jobs.
"Rents are growing at a pace that's much faster than renter wages are growing here in the state," Clemons said. "So much so that the average household has about $7,700 less annually in purchasing power compared to just three years ago."
The report also finds affordability crunch reaches all regions of the state, although areas around urban areas are more expensive. And it details a list of the most common jobs that employ the most amount of Hoosiers, and finds 14 out of 20 jobs do not provide a sufficient hourly average wage.
Clemons said the benefits of stable housing can be felt throughout the state.
"We know that having a stable home leads to higher participation in the workforce. The research tells us that economic growth and economic mobility for individuals who have stable housing; those rates tend to be higher, and then just the overall well-being of communities tend to be higher when people are stably housed," Clemons said.
This year's report urges policymakers to adopt measures to help Hoosiers afford housing.
About 30% of Hoosier households rent.
Contact WFYI Managing Editor Jill Sheridan at jsheridan@wfyi.org
