How many hours of work does it take to afford an apartment?

A New Mexican earning the state’s minimum wage of $12 an hour would need to work 60 hours a week to afford a one-bedroom apartment at the fair market rate of $942 a month. In order to work a typical 40-hour workweek, the renter’s hourly wage would need to be $21.81. 

Albuquerque metro area renters, meanwhile, would need to earn even more — $23.50 an hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment and work 40-hours a week.

The newly released data has shone a light on the challenges facing many New Mexico renters. There’s a shortage of at least 42,000 rental homes — both affordable and available — for the state’s lowest-income households. 

Twenty-eight percent, or 68,180, renter households are considered extremely low income — meaning wages fall at or below the poverty line. 

The statistics are included in a June 27 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). It found that despite a general increase in wages, cooling inflation and low unemployment numbers, the lowest-income renters across the country continue to struggle greatly to pay the bills.

The report’s authors say such circumstances are often dire, as 70% of extremely low income renter households also experience severe cost burdens. Many spend more than half of their income on housing, which makes them more likely than others to sacrifice necessities like healthy food and health care in order to pay rent and avoid eviction and the prospect of homelessness. 

“Out of Reach 2024: The High Cost of Housing” highlights the gulf between wages and fair market rental prices in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

To afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in New Mexico at the fair market rent of $1,134, a minimum wage worker would need to work 73 hours a week. When accounting for the cost of rent and utilities — and without paying more than 30% of income on housing — a two-bedroom renter household would need $3,780 a month or $45,359 a year. The average yearly income for an extremely low income household is $27,750.

“Given the inadequate housing safety net and increasingly unaffordable rents, it is no surprise that homelessness is on the rise,” the NLIHC said in a statement. “Addressing these challenges requires long-term federal investments in affordable housing and the Housing First model for ending homelessness.”

Minimum wage blues

The report’s 2024 average housing wage — an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a modest rental without spending more than 30% of income — is one of its key statistics. The wage is lowest in North Dakota ($18.38) and highest in California ($47.38). New Mexico is the 35th-lowest at $21.81.

Notably, full-time workers earning the federal minimum wage — or the prevailing state or local minimum wage — cannot afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent anywhere in the country, the report said.

In addition, among the nation’s 20 most common occupations — including home health and personal care aides and food preparation and fast food and counter workers — 14 pay median wages lower than the one-bedroom housing wage. The 14 occupations account for more than 64 million workers, or 42% of the workforce.

The NLIHC said federal policies enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that federal resources directed to renter protections were crucial to establish a housing safety net — preventing evictions and homelessness and mitigating housing instability. 

The coalition suggests expanding short- and long-term rental assistance, constructing “deeply” affordable housing, preserving existing affordable housing, and strengthening renter protections.