Indiana Renters Need $24 an Hour for 2-Bedroom as Average Pay Trails at $19

Q: Why are 14 of Indiana's 20 most common jobs no longer enough to keep a basic two-bedroom roof over a worker's head?

Because rent has risen much faster than pay in Indiana, many common jobs no longer cover even a modest two-bedroom apartment. The new Out of Reach 2026 report puts Indiana’s two-bedroom fair market rent at $1,255 a month. To keep that at or below 30% of income, a full-time renter must earn about $24.13 an hour, or roughly $50,183 a year. But the average renter wage in the state is only about $19 an hour. That gap alone explains why so many workers fall short. The squeeze has worsened quickly. Prosperity Indiana says the hourly wage needed to afford that apartment is about $5 higher than in its 2023 report, while Hoosier households have lost about $7,700 in annual purchasing power over three years. In other words, even where wages have increased, they have not kept pace with rent growth and broader living costs. A deeper supply problem is also driving the mismatch. Indiana has only 34 affordable and available rental homes for every 100 extremely low-income renter households, among the weakest rates in the Midwest. That shortage pushes pressure up across the rental market, especially in and around urban areas where rents are higher. The result is that many of the state’s biggest occupations—retail, food service, caregiving, cleaning, and similar service jobs—pay below the housing wage. With Indiana’s minimum wage still at $7.25, a full-time worker at that rate would need about 3.3 jobs to afford the average two-bedroom unit.

2 articles · Updated · WFYI · Jul 31

$24 an hour is now the wage needed to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Indiana, according to the Out of Reach 2026 housing affordability report.
Fair-market rent for that unit has reached $1,255 a month, requiring annual income of $50,183 to keep housing costs at or below 30% of income.
Indiana renters earn about $19 an hour on average—$5 less than needed and $5 higher than the gap calculated in the group's 2023 report—as rents outpace wage growth.
Minimum-wage workers making $7.25 an hour would need 3.3 jobs to afford a two-bedroom unit, and 14 of the 20 most common jobs in the state still do not pay enough.
The report says the affordability squeeze now reaches every region of Indiana, has cut average household purchasing power by about $7,700 in three years, and is prompting calls for policy action.

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Left100%

WFYI24d ago

Indiana Renters Need Over $24/Hour for Two-Bedroom, Wages Lagging, Report Finds

Facebook24d ago

A new report from Prosperity Indiana and the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that the wages needed to rent the average two-bedroom apartment in Indiana have outpaced what the typical renter

Why are 14 of Indiana's 20 most common jobs no longer enough to keep a basic two-bedroom roof over a worker's head?

As extremely low-income renters face a massive housing shortage, could this affordability crisis trigger a total collapse of the local service workforce?

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2 total

Left100%

WFYI24d ago

Indiana Renters Need Over $24/Hour for Two-Bedroom, Wages Lagging, Report Finds

Facebook24d ago

Indiana Renters Need $24 an Hour for 2-Bedroom as Average Pay Trails at $19

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