You’re in the market for a new home, but those prices seem out of reach. At what point is it better to rent rather than buy? Find out which cities are impacted the most. (Scripps News)
Rents have been rising steadily across the Buffalo Niagara region, rising at a better than 5% annual pace since the beginning of 2020.
But even with those sizable increases, which topped an 11% annual pace in early 2022, rents here remain relatively affordable, compared with the rest of the United States, according to a recent report by real estate firm Zillow.
The Zillow data pegs the average apartment rent locally at $1,317 a month in September, which is 5.2% more than a year ago. That’s 36% less than the national average of $2,050 a month.
That means the average renter in the Buffalo Niagara region is spending a much lower percentage of their income on housing than most people across the country.
The typical Buffalo Niagara renter spends about 21.3% of their income on rent, which matches the record high set back in 2022, the Zillow report found. Nationwide, rents are much less affordable, sopping up almost 30% of the average renter’s monthly income.
And the data also shows that rents here remain affordable, compared with most other big metro areas. The Zillow report puts Buffalo Niagara toward the top of its affordability rankings, barely trailing cities like Salt Lake City (19.9%), Austin, Texas (20.1%), Minneapolis (20.2%), St. Louis (20.5%) and Raleigh, N.C. (21%).
But the data are averages. It doesn’t mean that rents are affordable for everyone. The Partnership for the Public Good estimates about half of Erie County’s renter households spend over 30% of their income on rent.
Source: The Buffalo News
