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What you’d need to make in every county in the US to afford a decent one-bedroom
- dm2 13y agoThis PDF is what the map is based on and has some additional data: http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2014OOR.pdf http://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/2014OOR.pdf Also: http://nlihc.org/oor/2014 http://nlihc.org/oor/2014
- saraid216 13y agoWhile that is good to have, a glance through the PDF actually says this data is different. Namely, the PDF indicates 2-bedroom whereas the WaPo article indicates 1-bedroom. I should probably do a number-comparison on a per-county basis to see if the WaPo writers simply made a mistake, but I'm feeling pretty lazy.
- dm2 13y agoThey probably just downloaded the states individually (http://nlihc.org/oor/2014/NY http://nlihc.org/oor/2014/NY) to get the 1 bedroom numbers.
- saraid216 13y agoAnd to clarify, you have to pull the XLS in order to get the 1BDR numbers. The PDF is still just 2BDR. But yes. dm2 is correct. This is probably the link that should have been shared to start: http://nlihc.org/oor/2014 http://nlihc.org/oor/2014
- wdmeldon 13y agoI avergaged the 1-bedroom numbers for all of the counties in Rhode Island (guess why I picked Rhode Island) and got ~$15.00, which is ~$3.00 less than the 2-bedroom on the PDF. So they probably calculated it correctly. Two bedrooms are always surprisingly close in price to one bedrooms.
- adolph 13y agoHere is the Washington Post's datasource: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/county-rental-wages/data/rentals.csv http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/county...
- dm2 13y agoThat's the data used to generate the map, I was linking to where they got those numbers from.
- plorg 13y agoCounty-level data is available on a per-state basis from the NLIHC website. I went and downloaded all of the state data spreadsheets and merged them into one big spreadsheet. It took maybe 20 lines of python. Here it is, for anyone interested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/40bg2um044vy82f/2014-OOR-ALL.xls https://www.dropbox.com/s/40bg2um044vy82f/2014-OOR-ALL.xls
- nutjob123 13y agoI don't see manhattan in the list. Average here is around 2500 for a 1br, I thought that was high.
- rayiner 13y agoManhattan is New York County, $23.37.
- flanbiscuit 13y agoBrooklyn is the same however I'd like to see this broken down further by neighborhoods of Brooklyn (or all boroughs) because prices can vary significantly by neighborhood
- potatolicious 13y agoThere are a couple of real estate firms that do regular reporting on pricing trends: http://www.mns.com/pdf/manhattan_market_report_mar_14.pdf http://www.mns.com/pdf/manhattan_market_report_mar_14.pdf http://www.mns.com/pdf/brooklyn_market_report_mar_14.pdf http://www.mns.com/pdf/brooklyn_market_report_mar_14.pdf
- reboog711 13y agoManhattan isn't a county. Look for New York County. It is $23.27
- thyroxo 13y agoHmmm, I'm not sure if I'm understanding the methodology... am I missing something? According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the 1-bedroom rent+utilities cost (or FMR) is $750 for Schenectady County, NY. [1] At minimum wage, and 40 hours each week, you make $7.25404 = $1160 each month. How is $1160 < $750? [1]: http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2014_code/2014summary.odn http://www.huduser.org/portal/datasets/fmr/fmrs/FY2014_code/...
- lutorm 13y agoPresumably it's based on the fact that you can "afford" to live there if you don't spend more than x % of your income on housing, where x < 100.
- mikeash 13y agoThey are assuming that you spend 30% of your income on housing, leaving you money for food, transportation, taxes, etc.
- thyroxo 13y agoI wonder if that assumption is fair. Also, do you know where it says that in the article?
- reboog711 13y agoIt doesn't say that in the article... It is an important point that would provide context to a lot of numbers.
- danielweber 13y agoIn some dense cities, the bulk of the transportation costs are rolled into your housing costs, because you are buying walking distance to a subway.
- mikeash 13y agoYes, it really seems like a variable approach would work better. There's a big difference between spending 30% of your income on housing while living in a rural area and doing so in the middle of Manhattan. I imagine that percentage could go considerably higher in big cities.
- njharman 13y agoWhat's up with expensive counties in north central N. Dakota?
- danielweber 13y agoNatural gas boom. Pardon the expression.
- amckenna 13y agoFrom the article: "A dark swathe of North Dakota that appears to cover the geography of the oil and gas boom stands out as well."
- falcolas 13y agoOil boom. All the various workers are making triple digit salaries, and like any good boom, people offering food and housing are adjusting their prices upwards to match.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- afarrell 13y agoIs in NY, PN, WV, VA, and OH. Not ND.
- jcampbell1 13y agoThat region is called the Bakken formation.
- tnorthcutt 13y agoI'm guessing it's areas where demand is high, but supply is low, due to increased oil & gas activity.
- theorique 13y agoFracking and oil.
- protomyth 13y ago
- danielweber 13y agoWhen I hear words like "decent" I check for my wallet. When I was at a start-up making very below-average wages (in the Boston area, in fact), I lived in a very below-average place.
- lifeisstillgood 13y agoBut you would not want to send your children to school in a very below average school ... which may or may not be the point.
- tthomas48 13y agoIt just means that they don't include buildings that are falling apart, nor do they include penthouse flats. Texas and Louisiana both have lots of dark purple and have the very worst public schools in the nation. It's really just a pretty good indication of where the jobs are.
- danielweber 13y agoNearly by definition, someone has to go to very below average schools, and someone has to live in the very below average housing. The first situation is more scary than the second, of course. Being young and single and in good health with no kids it was fine living below average.
- adregan 13y agoYes, but you had the expectation that things would get better (and I'm assuming you had the skills to make much more). My friends who aren't involved in the tech industry have quite a long row to hoe when it comes to making more money. I had a friend (who loves cooking and is accomplished in restaurant work) struggle to find anything above $13-15 an hour in NYC (and that's hard work at a busy restaurant), and it doesn't often get better than that. For some, living in below average accommodations isn't a necessary stop along the way but the destination, and that stinks.
- qq66 13y ago50% of people live in below-average accommodations.
- SlipperySlope 13y agoTexas, where I live, is notable in the map for the diversity of costs, in particular the frequent juxtaposition of the highest and lowest cost counties. The rich live in cities, and landlords set rents according to the ability to pay.
- robbs 13y agoThe wage data that drives the document is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/county-rental-wages/data/rentals.csv http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/county...
- adolph 13y agoI think this is an excellent example of a bad chart. The premise seems to be an illustration the geographical differences in income needed to obtain housing. However, the arbitrary coloring choices makes a $13 county (example Dallas County, TX) look the same as a $20 county (example LA Country, CA). The difference $7/hour is almost the same as the minimum wage in Dallas--that's a significant amount that the map disguises. Speaking of minimum wages, what's up with the five Washington and 3 Oregon counties with minimum wages above the "what you's need to make" mark? Columbia County Pend Oreille County Stevens County Wahkiakum County Lincoln County Harney County Morrow County Wheeler County
- saraid216 13y ago> The difference $7/hour is almost the same as the minimum wage in Dallas--that's a significant amount that the map disguises. Agreed, but I'm not sure that makes it a bad chart. To me, one of the things the chart is saying is that 1BDR housing wages outside of the $10-13 range are uninteresting. If this is something they checked and know to be true, then deliberately zooming in on that range is useful, because it highlights that variance. If they're hiding relevant information by ignoring things outside of that range, then it's a problem. I mean, it's a choropleth. That already starts edging into "bad chart" territory.
- philwelch 13y agoLow cost-of-living counties in states with high minimum wages meant for city dwellers, most likely. The cost of living difference between Seattle and eastern Washington is immense, but guess which one the state sets minimum wage based on.
- superbaconman 13y agoMy dad just bought a down town storefront with a killer apt above for 25k. I can't believe that telecommuting programmers aren't owning small towns all throughout America.
- im_a_lawyer 13y agoWhere could you get that kind of property for 25K?
- rybosome 13y agoThere's a lot more that goes into enjoying one's surroundings than just the price paid to own a home there. For those who enjoy small towns, you're absolutely right; what an amazing opportunity.
- nextw33k 13y agoIs it an Americanism to use the word every in this fashion? I looked at the title and wondered why you would want the sum total of all the housing costs. I would rather know what each county's costs are. Clicking on the link it is each, however given the prestige of the website made me wonder if this is another subtle example of British verses American usage?
- randallsquared 13y agoAs an American, it does seem like a slightly ambiguous or odd usage.