Mortgage rates are still rising as home prices are approaching record high, and today I rented a place to live A better choice Buy. But here's the harvest: rents are soaring.

Zillow calculates that renters need at least $80,000 in annual income to comfortably afford the typical apartment rental — up from $60,000 in 2020. And if you want to live in a larger urban area, apartment hunters now need to earn $100,000 or more to live in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose, while even modestly sized Riverside, California, requires six figures for People keep their heads on the water, according to real estate companies.

"Today, renters need to earn six figures to afford typical rents in eight major metropolitan areas, as much as the pandemic," said Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow. "This means tenants are providing less money on their budget for essential items like groceries and transportation, or saving for down payments."

A typical guide is to earn no more than 30% on rental income. From a perspective, those who earn $100,000 are $2,500 a month. To keep below the 30% threshold, tenants in the eight cities listed by Zillow need to earn at least six figures.

“This Zillow data can support what every renter feels when looking for an apartment or trying to renew a lease,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference. “Not only in New York City, but across the country, the cost of housing is soaring that they can’t keep up.”

This is where you need to earn six figures to afford rents – and cities where you can escape from lower wages.

The most expensive

It's no surprise that New York City ranks Zillow's list. The Big Apple can represent a housing affordability crisis in many ways. According to Zillow analysis, New York City residents earn about $135,000 annually to be able to afford rent comfortably. That's almost twice the average income of tenants in New York City, Fei said.

According to Zillow data, the average rent in New York City is $2,950, 59% higher than the national average. This city is doing Pay broker fees Starting this summer, this may give tenants more swing space when it comes to apartment searches.

Zillow said the second most elegant city is Boston, where renters need to earn $127,000 a year to comfortably afford rent.

Tenants looking for more affordable metro areas can look for cities like Buffalo, Oklahoma and Oklahoma City. In these cities, renters need to earn less than half of their income in New York and Boston, or about $55,000.

Zillow's data will increase how much rents have increased in recent years. Monthly rents for typical U.S. apartments have increased nearly 30% to $1,858 since April 2020. Meanwhile, wage growth lagged behind during the period, with median annual income rising 22.5% to $82,000, according to the Census Bureau.

The center of the problem is that the state is in the proper housing supply. Even if hundreds of thousands of apartments are built each year, that is not enough to meet the demand.

“We’ve seen too much pressure since the pandemic and the competition for housing,” Fei said. “And the inventory isn’t there because again, we’re underbuilt as a country.”

To increase the supply of affordable housing and overall inventory, Congress needs to take action by expanding programs such as low-income housing tax credits, which can subsidize affordable housing, the cost added.

“Renters across the country are seeking relief from Washington, and Congress has not taken any meaningful action to increase affordable housing supply,” she told CBS MoneyWatch.