NJ Rent Among Most Expensive In Nation As Prices Skyrocket: Report

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey consistently ranks among states with the nation's highest rent, but two new data shows just how expensive the rental market has become. The Garden State has the seventh-highest rent, while one New Jersey locale has the highest rent in the United States, according to reports on the expensiveness of rent across the nation.

A New Jerseyan working minimum wage — $13 in the state — would've needed to work 80 hours per week to afford a "modest" one-bedroom apartment in the 2022 fiscal yaer, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). Meanwhile, Jersey City has the priciest rent of any city in the nation with an average rent of $5,500, according to rent.com.

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The state and federal eviction moratoriums implemented during the pandemic have ended — as have many emergency rental assistance programs. As housing costs soar, 11 million "extremely low-income renter households" face difficult decisions about how to afford basic necessities, according to NLIHC, a nonprofit housing group.

In fact, there is no state, metropolitan area or county where a full-time, minimum-wage worker can afford a modest two-bedroom apartment, the report says. A modest one-bedroom home has become unaffordable for full-time, minimum wage workers in 91 percent of U.S. counties, the NLIHC says.

The NLIHC report calculates the "housing wage" a full-time worker must earn to afford rent without spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. In New Jersey, that requires earning $31.32 per hour — or working 96 hours per week on minimum wage — to afford rent and utilities in a two-bedroom apartment.

New Jersey has nearly 1.2 million rental households — 36 percent of the households in the state, according to the report. But the state's hourly mean rental wage is only $23.29, the NLIHC says. The average two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey costs $1,628.

And the disparities get worse in different metro areas and counties. The following metro areas in New Jersey require the highest wages for affording a two-bedroom apartment:

• Jersey City metro area: $37.92 per hour
• Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon: $35.60
• Bergen-Passaic: $33.68
• Trenton: $31.02
• Monmouth-Ocean: $29.96

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington market is the most affordable, with $24.96 per hour needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment. But that still requires 1.9 full-time, minimum wage jobs to afford, the NLIHC says.

New Jersey is also home to some of the nation's most-expensive rental cities, according to rent.com. Jersey City is the nation's priciest city for renting, averaging $5,500 per month — $622 more than the second-place city, with Boston at $4,878 a month. The rent in Jersey City became 66.25 percent more expensive between 2021 and 2022, according to rent.com.

Hoboken places seventh in the nation, with rent averaging $4,264 — 21.46 percent higher than last year. Bayonne has the 34th-priciest rental market at $3,101 per month — 13.65 percent higher than last year.

View full reports from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and rent.com for more info.