15 cities with plenty of rentals and high enough wages to afford them

• Rental price growth is outpacing wage growth in most US cities, especially in New York.
• However, cities like Austin, Portland, and Salt Lake City have seen wages grow faster than rent.
• The gap between income and cost of living continues to widen, even in cities with strong wage growth.

It's a tough time to be a renter.

A new Zillow and StreetEasy analysis finds that rental price growth is far outpacing wage growth in most big cities — and New Yorkers are particularly screwed. In New York City, rents increased seven times as fast as wages from 2022 to 2023. Similarly, renters in Boston, Cincinnati, and Buffalo are seeing their wage growth dwarfed by their rent increases.