Photograph: Overflow Data
Chronic rent complainers, us included, will find this map by Overflow Data, an independent data and research firm, very compelling.
Using data collected by the US Census Bureau in 2015, the firm calculated that Americans spend an average of 30.3% of their income on rent. Check out the interactive map right here.
Not entirely surprisingly, Florida boasts the highest rent in proportion to household income (precisely, 33.6%). On the opposite side of the spectrum, renting a home in North Dakota will cost you the least in the country as compared to how much you make (24.7% of your income, to be exact).
States whose rent-to-income numbers run above the national average include Hawaii, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Mississippi, Oregon and Massachusetts while Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah and Montana are some of the below-national-average areas.
Are you considering an out-of-state move yet?