ST. LOUIS – A new report finds that the rise of rent costs is outpacing the rise of worker wages over recent years in the St. Louis region.

ConsumerAffairs, an American consumer news platform, released a report earlier this week on the state of rent prices nationwide, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Zillow for comparisons.

The report indicated that the median rent costs in the St. Louis metropolitan area increased by 5.83% from the 2022 to 2023 calendar year, as opposed to median wages increasing by 3.26% in the same time span.

According to ConsumerAffairs, the median monthly rent in the St. Louis metro was $1,351 at the end of the 2023 calendar year while the median yearly wage was $47,490.

Before taxes and other expenses, the median rent costs would represent around 34% of the median wage accrued over a whole year. That’s slightly above the 30% mark that financial experts say is necessary to live comfortably.

Nationally, the report revealed that around half of renters have taken on debt to pay recent rent expenses and that the rise in median rent costs has increased the median rise in wages nearly 30% to 20% over the last five calendar years, dating back to just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“Rent increases are driven by several factors, including a growing demand for rental housing and limited supply,” said Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in the ConsumerAffairs report.. “Rent increases can also be attributed to a mostly unregulated rental market that — especially in markets where demand far outstrips supply — permits landlords to raise rents as high as the market will allow, without regard to the impact on tenants with low incomes.”

Cities with similar situations to St. Louis in terms of how much rent outpacing wage growth included Omaha, Nebraska; Cincinnati, Ohio; Rochester, New York; and Chicago, Illinois, according to ConsumerAffairs.

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