U.S. cities where Americans can afford to live alone

In September, The Economist released its third annual “Carrie Bradshaw index,” named after the protagonist of the hit TV show “Sex and the City.” The report ranks the U.S. cities where Americans can afford to live alone.

The index was named after the character because, on the show, she lives in a studio apartment in the West Village and it is highly unlikely that she could afford it on a writer’s salary now, Lizzy Peet, a data researcher at The Economist, tells CNBC Make It.

“It all came about from a sort of snappy way to sum up the aspiration, a sort of quality of living by yourself in a big city for the first time. How much would you have to earn to afford that? And how much is that a realist prospect?” she says.

To rank the U.S. cities, The Economist used the rule that a tenant should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on rent. That, in combination with using rental prices from Zumper, led to the calculation of the salary needed to afford a typical studio in each city. Each city was given a “Bradshaw score” where a value more than one means an average studio apartment is affordable and less than one means housing is unaffordable.

“Cities that build a lot or maybe that have less demand or maybe have less population demand on rent are the kind of cities that are looking more affordable,” Peet says.

One big change in this year’s index is that some cities that were affordable last year have slid into the unaffordable category this year, Peet adds.

A lot of cities in Texas, like Dallas, Houston, and Austin, moved from what was deemed affordable to what is now deemed unaffordable.

“There are loads of factors at work here. It’s important to know that rental markets can be quite random, but they can fluctuate a lot in a very short space of time,” Peet says. “It’s pretty well documented that Texas has seen this influx of middle-class workers, and that would drive rent up.”

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In this year’s index, 41 cities were unaffordable, up from 38 cities last year.

1. Wichita, Kan.
2. Baton Rouge, La.
3. Lincoln, Neb.
4. Des Moines, Iowa
5. Akron, Ohio
6. Tucson, Ariz.
7. Tulsa, Okla.
8. St. Louis, Mo.
9. Albuquerque, N.M.
10. Aurora, Colo.

Wichita, Kansas, is the most affordable city in the index. It has a Bradshaw score of around 1.75, which means that median wages in the city are 75% higher than needed to afford an average studio apartment.

The average monthly rent for studio apartments in Wichita is $580, up 1.64% from last month, but down 10.54% year-over-year, according to Zumper.

Residents of Wichita need to earn $26,400 a year to afford a studio, which is $20,250 less than the median wage.

“I’m not that surprised Wichita is the most affordable. A lot of the cities in the bottom 10 are off the beaten track and not huge economic powerhouses. It’s an interesting dynamic,” Peet says.

“There are still some perhaps less desirable cities that are surprisingly unaffordable and vice versa.”

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