Hiya, Lakeland. 👋 The National Low Income Housing Coalition just released a new study that reports the gap between renters’ wages + the cost of rental housing across the US. 🏠

Which got us thinking — how much does it cost, on average, to rent a two-bedroom apartment in the Lakeland area? 🧐 Let’s break it down, by the numbers.

💰 $915. The Fair Market Rental (FMR) price (including utilities) for a two-bedroom apartment in the Lakeland Metropolitan area. In FL, the FMR for the same-sized apartment is $1,270, which is $24 more than the national average.

💰 82. The number of hours you’d have to work per week on minimum wage (in FL this is $8.56) to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Lakeland. A renter that makes a mean wage would need to work 45 hours a week to afford the same-sized apartment.

💰 2.1. The number of full-time jobs – at minimum wage – it takes to afford a two-bedroom apartment (FMR) in Lakeland.

💰 0.4%. The percent that Lakeland’s rents have declined over the past month, according to Apartment List.

💰 $17.60. The hourly wage a Lakeland resident would have to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city. That’s a yearly income of $36,000.

💰 31%. There are 72,785 households (out of 231,260) currently renting in Lakeland, making up 31% of the city’s population.

💰 12. Florida currently ranks as the 12th most expensive state for renters in the country. Hawaii is the most expensive + Arkansas is the least expensive.

For more city data, state data, and to compare with other metropolitan areas, go here and click around. It’s really fun to put our numbers beside Hawaii’s. 💸

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