Louisvillians must earn $14.07 per hour at a full-time job to afford the $731 cost for a two-bedroom apartment in the metro area, said arecent study from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.Louisville minimum-wage earners need nearly two full-time jobs to cover those rent costs—a difficult proposition for single parents.The analysis considers fair market rent for a "decent" apartment, which calculating that renters would spend no more than 30 percent of their earnings on housing.Louisville is still cheaper than most surrounding cities. In Indianapolis, minimum-wage earners need two full-time jobs to afford $765 in rent for a two-bedroom apartment. In Nashville, it's 2.2 full-time minimum wage jobs to afford the $819 rent for a two-bedroom apartment.Here's a graphic with a little more detail. Click the icon over the city for more on how they compare to Louisville:"The rental housing market is booming," the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in the study.People are waiting to buy a home, an effect of the recession and its aftermath. Meanwhile, the cost of rent has increased in recent years, thestudy said.
Affordable housing was an issue in February with a Louisville Metro Council proposal to increase the city's tax on insurance premiums by 1 percentage point. The money raised—an estimated $9.7 million—would go to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which was established in 2007 to help address housing needs of low-income and working families.
