When renting, it is only natural that you would want to get as much space for as little money as possible. But how much can you get your hopes up? It depends where you live. In our latest study, we wanted to find out just how much space a typical income can get you without becoming rent-burdened.

Where does New Jersey stand from this point of view?

• In Jersey City, if you were to limit your spending on rent to 30% of your income, you’d have to live in approx. 370 square feet of space, about the same size apartment you could rent in Chicago, Cleveland, or Philadelphia.
• Crossing the Newark Bay Bridge would give you an extra 60 square feet. In Newark, with 30% of a median income you could rent 437 square feet, which, although is not much, is way better than what a renter living in Brooklyn and Manhattan would be able to afford.
• At a national level, Jersey City and Newark are in 9^th and 15^th places for the least space one can afford with a median income.
• If you want to aim higher but keep your rent-to-income ratio in check, the closest options between 500 and 600 square feet would be Baltimore (541 square feet) and Pittsburgh (521 square feet). Or you could rent larger-than-average apartments in Arlington (902 square feet) or Virginia Beach (1077 square feet) while living within your means.

Here you can check out our apartment size calculator and an interactive table comparing how many square feet one can rent on a median income vs. the average size of apartments in the 100 most populous US cities:https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/apartmentliving/how-much-space-can-you-rent-on-median-income-in-the-100-largest-u-s-cities/