Published July 2, 2019
By Tennyson Donnie Coleman

If you think it’s expensive to live in the Garden State, you’re not wrong.

A new study, conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, finds New Jersey is the fifth most expensive state for renters. (It’s behind Hawaii, California, Massachusetts and New York.)

According to the study, a New Jersey family needs to earn at least $60,000 to afford a two-bedroom home at $1,500. That averages out to a family being paid $28.86 per hour, which the study calls New Jersey’s “housing wage" (the amount the average family needs to make in New Jersey in order to afford a modest and safe home without spending more than 30 percent of their income).

The coalition says the housing wage is based on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s fair market rents.

The report’s housing wage is nearly $10 more per hour than New Jersey’s wage per capita, which U.S. Census numbers show is $18.78. It should also be noted that the state’s median household income in 2017 was $76,475, according to Census data.

So which counties are the least affordable?

The study says Hunterdon County (where a family would need to make at least $69,840 to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the “fair market rate”), Middlesex and Somerset counties are the most expensive for rentals. It says a two-bedroom apartment in those counties costs on average $1,746 per month.

According to the U.S. Census, the median household income in Hunterdon County is $110,969. It’s $83,133 in Middlesex County, and $106,046 in Somerset County.

Elsewhere, Cape May, Sussex and Gloucester are the least affordable for those who live there. It factors in the fair market rate for a two-bedroom apartment ($48,080, $57,880, $48,000 respectively). The study says the average resident in all three counties makes less than $12 per hour.

“Under the current administration federally, and even under previous administrations, we have not been putting in new dollars into keeping up with the need for affordable homes,” said Arnold Cohen, senior policy adviser for the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey.

You can read more about the study here.