"It feels like we are being set up to fail"

Affordable Housing is Out of Reach in Indiana for Low-Wage Hoosiers

Wages aren’t keeping up with rent costs. Simple math says that’s a recipe for major problems and this report from Properity Indiana confirms that with data.

“Released annually, the Out of Reach report calls attention to the gulf between wages and what people need to earn to afford their rents. The report shows that affordable rental homes are out of reach for millions of low-wage workers and other families. The report’s “Housing Wage” is an estimate of the hourly wage full time workers must earn to afford a rental home at fair market rent without spending more than 30% of their incomes. Nationally, the 2023 Housing Wage is $28.58 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home and $23.67 for a modest one-bedroom rental home.”

That Indiana is an “affordable” place to live is a fallacy. “Despite a reputation of being a low-cost state, the Housing Wage in Indiana has worsened from 43rd-least affordable in the nation in 2021 to 38th in 2023. Among Midwest states, Hoosier renter wages remain persistently behind the average of the region. In 2023, the mean Hoosier renter wage of $17.86 is now $0.91 an hour lower than the $18.77 mean renter wage across all 12 Midwest states.”

Read Prosperity Indiana’s assessment of the national data here.