How Much the Middle Class Paid for Rent in the 1970s Compared to Now
Written by
Chris Adam
Edited by
Chris Cluff
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Rising grocery prices are making it tougher for middle-class families to pay their bills — and millions are being hit with rent prices they can barely afford.
According to TIME, half of all renters in the U.S. were cost burdened in 2022. They were spending more than 30% of their income on housing. Further, over 12 million people in the U.S. were spending at least half their paychecks on rent.
U.S. News & World Report said typical rents in the U.S. settled in at $1,957 in December. For comparison, according to a New York Times article from 1973, the median monthly rent for houses and apartments in the U.S. in 1970 was $108. That’s around $879 in today’s dollars, accounting for inflation.
Recessions Have Nearly Doubled Rent
While rent was relatively stable in 1970, “The 1970s brought a recession that created the first large gap in renter affordability,” according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The Great Recession in the late 2000s helped fuel today’s affordability crisis.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the numbers from December 2023. According to U.S. News & World Report, the median rent for a one-bedroom rental was $1,499. The median rent for two bedrooms was $1,856.
What does it look like when compared to average paychecks? According to Consumer Affairs, when adjusted for 2022 inflation, the average annual income in the U.S. for 1970 was $24,600. The national average salary in the fourth quarter of 2023 in the U.S. was $59,384, according to USA Today.
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