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- Single renters are struggling to afford elevated housing costs.
- But single women have it much harder than their male counterparts.
- In El Paso and Miami, rent as a portion of income costs women almost twice as much as men.
Being single can make life much more expensive. Housing costs are a big part of the so-called "singles tax," the cost of not splitting the bills with a partner. But women, who make less money than men on average, are hit the hardest.
Single women tend to spend more of their income on rent and are more likely to be rent-burdened — which means spending 30% or more of your income on rent — than single men, according to a recent RentHop report that looked at 50 US cities. The average single woman living in a studio apartment was found to be rent-burdened in 25 of the 50 cities, while solo men spent at least 30% of their income on rent in only eight of the cities.
The city with the biggest disparity between the genders was El Paso, Texas, where the median rent for a studio apartment — which was $698 — required 35% of a woman's average income, whereas it cost single men just 18% of their income.
But Miami was both the second-most unaffordable place for single women to rent in the country, and much more affordable for single men. In the Florida city, the median rent for a studio apartment — which was $1,986 — required 72% of the average single woman's income and just 42% of the average single man's income. In El Paso, the average woman spent 1.9 times more than the average man in rent as a portion of their income, while in Miami they spent 1.7 times more.
These numbers are increasingly important in a country where a growing share of people are living alone. These days, almost 30% of US households are single-occupancy, up from 7.7% in 1940, according to US Census data.
New York City had the most unaffordable rent of any city in the country. There, median studios — which are $3,308 per month — cost single women 79% of their income, while they cost 61% of the average single man's income. Arlington, Texas was the only city where both single women and men spent the same portion of their income — 28% — in rent.