This Is the Minimum Salary Needed to Have Your Own Apartment in Boston

Hint: It's cringeworthy.

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There’s a good chance that if you’ve lived in Boston for years, you’ve shared a place with a couple of roommates. It’s not by choice, of course—roommates are practically a financial necessity in Boston. Unless you earn $78,477 per year, that is.

According to a new study from apartment search engine Nestpick, that’s the minimum annual salary needed to have your own apartment in Boston. Indeed, just $6,540 per month will allow you to put 29 percent of your income toward rent for a one-bedroom apartment. (It’s widely accepted that living costs should not exceed a quarter of your income. In this study, Berlin-based Nestpick based their calculations on 29 percent, sourced from a UK housing study.)

“This study reveals that many of the nation’s most popular cities are too expensive for the average American, with the Bureau of Labour Statistics reporting that the median U.S. salary is $44,148 per year,” said Ömer Kücükdere, Nestpick’s managing director, in a statement. “This indicates that many Americans are paying well over the recommended 29 percent of their salary on rent.”

That means Bostonians earning the median U.S. salary, which amounts to $3,679 per month, would have to pay 51 percent of their income to live without roommates.

Out of the 14 U.S. cities examined, Boston ranked as the third most-expensive city for single-capacity apartments. San Francisco came out on top with a required annual salary of $97,635, while New York clocked in second at $82,214.

If you lived in Washington D.C., the fourth-most expensive city on the list, you could make about $12,000 less than Boston’s required salary and still afford a one-bedroom. Las Vegas is the most affordable U.S. city in the study, with residents needing to make $32,750 to pay for an unfurnished apartment.

Feel like glancing at a chart with some very disheartening numbers? You can see the complete analysis, with comparisons to other cities around the globe, here.