In a report called “shocking,” Alabama residents need at least $59,000 a year income to not be considered rent-burdened.

“This is an amazingly high number. I think most will find this figure shocking, especially given that U.S. median income is $71,500,” said Dr. Bennie Waller, in the UA Culverhouse College of Business and a research associate in the Alabama Center for Real Estate at UA. “While the pace of rent growth is slowing around the country, housing affordability is coming more into focus.”

Waller believes the Yellowhammer State and the rest of the country will eventually turn to an old solution to combat the rising prices in rent.

“In the past, the nation has dealt with unaffordable housing in the short run by moving in together,” he said. “This is what seems most likely once again.”

Currently, the median household income for Alabamians is about $56,900, only slightly less than the $58,800 needed, on average, for rent not to consume too much of a household’s expenses.

The study included Alabama’s 12 largest metro areas: Auburn, Birmingham, Daphne, Decatur, Dothan, Enterprise, Florence, Huntsville, Jasper, Mobile, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa.

Dothan is the highest in the state at $68,467 and Mobile is the lowest at $47,813. The index is available here.

The average rent across the dozen Alabama metro areas tracked in the report was about $1,400 in May.

Consumers are considered rent-burdened when they spend 30% or more of their incomes on rent, lessening the ability to pay for other necessities.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.