An upstate New York city was just ranked as the cheapest place to rent in the US — but there's a catch

Rising rent and mortgage rates have led to a lack of affordable housing across the U.S., triggering a crisis that has forced people to move away from major cities or order tiny homes for cheap accommodation. In such gloomy times, it may seem surprising that the city with the lowest rents for working-class people is in the state of New York. A study conducted by the listing platform Clever Real Estate shows that the city of Buffalo in upstate New York is indeed the cheapest to rent a home for minimum wage earners. The study looked at the typical rent for units and compared them with the minimum wage across the 50 largest housing markets of the country.

Most Affordable City for Singles 

While the city of Buffalo offers low-cost housing options, it is important to note that New York state also offers a relatively strong minimum wage of $15, which is double the federal minimum wage. According to Clever Real Estate, Buffalo's fair market rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,001, or 39% of the monthly income ($2,600) of a full-time minimum wage worker. This was considerably lower than the second most affordable city on the list, St. Louis, Missouri, where minimum wage workers have to shell out 46% of their monthly income to afford rent.

Furthermore, only Buffalo and St. Louis offer two-bedroom rentals that are affordable on two minimum-wage incomes combined. The city of Queens was also the only one where couples or two minimum-wage workers living together could afford to rent a three-bedroom unit. Apart from these two, there's only one more city, where renters can afford a one-bedroom unit without spending half of their minimum wage income. Hartford, Connecticut allows minimum wage renters to afford a home by paying 48% of their monthly income. 

What's the Catch?

Out of all the 50 cities in the study, a single person would need to earn at least $18 per hour to afford rent on a one-bedroom apartment, to stay within the 30% rule. While Buffalo emerged as the cheapest, there are more factors apart from rent to consider. Athena Cyrus, the Co-Chair of the Affordable Housing Task Force in the city, told ABC7 affiliate WKBW that it was astonishing to see Buffalo at number one. She further pointed out that only cheaper rent doesn't make it livable as there are factors like taxes, assessments, childcare, and care for senior citizens to consider.

Furthermore, the study notes that none of the 50 cities studied had one-bedroom rentals to offer that meet the common affordability threshold of 30% of local minimum wage incomes. For Buffalo to fall under the threshold, the minimum wage will have to go up to $19.25 an hour, or the rent for a one-bedroom apartment will have to come down to $780 per month, the author of the study, Nick Pisano told the news outlet.

Things weren't better for couples either. The study notes that there are only nine cities out of the 50, where couples or roommates, who are full-time minimum-wage workers, could afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment. These cities are Buffalo, St. Louis, Missouri, Hartford,  Minneapolis, Providence, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, and  Denver.