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84 ILLINOIS Chicago Tops List of Most Affordable Rental Markets e Windy City is the most affordable rental housing market in the United States, according to a report by online real estate and management firm HomeUnion. What's the most expensive rental market? We'll give you a hint: it's in California. HomeUnion's report breaks down the top 10 most and least expensive U.S. rental markets, spotlighting the annual rental for a single-family rental home, the average annual income, and the rent-to-income ratio. Chicago tops the list as the only American metro where typical renters spend less than 20 percent of their annual income on housing. HomeUnion reports an average annual SFR rent in Chicago as $19,956, against an average annual income of $102,180. at works out to a rent-to-income ratio of 19.5 percent. "With its low cost of living, relatively large housing inventory levels, and high affordability, Chicago is an excellent market for residents entering the renting pool," said Steve Hovland, Director of Research for HomeUnion. e second metro on the list is Charlotte, North Carolina, with an average SFR rent of $15,792. "About one-quarter of the average income of a typical Charlotte resident goes to rental housing, making it appealing to millennials," Hovland said. e rest of the top 10 most affordable single-family rental markets include Minneapolis; Detroit; Atlanta; St. Louis; Raleigh, North Carolina; Houston; Oklahoma City; and Tampa. On the other end of the spectrum, Oakland tops the list of most expensive SFR markets, with an average annual SFR rent of $37,524, an average annual income of $73,284, and a rent-to-income ratio of 51.2 percent. Rounding out the rest of the most expensive top 10 metros are Cincinnati; Salt Lake City; Orange County, California; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Denver; Cleveland; and San Diego. Hovland explained, "Low affordability negatively impacts all renters in the Bay Area, Denver, Southern California, and Washington, D.C., because of strong local job market conditions, intense demand for rental properties, and high mortgage costs for owner- occupied housing." He added: "A significant number of potential young renters are migrating out of Ohio to Chicago or booming western metros such as Denver, the Bay Area, and Los Angeles, leaving mostly low-wage earners to occupy rentals." MICHIGAN Adept at Debt When it comes to balancing mortgage obligations with credit card debt and college loans, Michiganders are doing a bang-up job, according to a study by Credible of 540,000 homeowners, renters, and people living with their parents. Wolverine State residents shell out just 25.3 percent of their monthly income on housing payments, credit card bills, and student loans, reveals the study, which sought out the states where people are best (and, flip-side, worst) at dealing with debt. Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri round out the top five states boasting the lowest debt-to-income ratios in the nation, the study says. e five states with the dubious distinction of highest average debt-to-income ratio are Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Montana, the study notes. On average, those who hail from the Aloha State drop 36.2 percent of their monthly paychecks on housing, credit card, and student loan payments—the highest percentage in the country and over 43 percent more than Michigan citizens ante up each month. Why are some states seemingly more skilled at managing their debts than others? e answer, Credible contends, isn't so cut and dried. Again using Michigan as a case-in- point, cost of living plays a crucial role. Low average monthly housing obligations relative to average income (coupled with lower- than-average credit card and student loan payments) propel that state up the list, the study says. Be that as it may, some states charted in a lower rung because of especially high mortgage, credit card, or student loan payments, Credible reports. Hawaiians, for instance, pay the fourth-highest amount on housing costs and second-highest total on monthly credit card bills but don't earn enough average income to cover all those costs. To wit, the 540,000 individuals included in the dataset had an average monthly house payment of $906, in addition to an average credit card payment of $207 and an average student loan payment of $370. eir average annual take-home salary: $60,671. Almost 19 percent of the analyzed group had one or more mortgages. Of that segment, the average housing payment nearly doubled to $1,705. MINNESOTA Aspiring Millennial Homeowners Head to Minneapolis Affordable homes, low unemployment rates, and high-paying jobs, apart from which city will give them the best chance of success, are some of the factors that aspiring millennial homeowners look at while searching for their ideal home. According to a study by GOBankingRates, Minneapolis rates high on all these factors, making it a city with the most number of millennial homeowners. For the study, GOBankingRates analyzed the largest 50 metro areas in the United States, examining their unemployment rates, millennial home-ownership levels, millennial home values, and mortgage affordability to rank the 20 most desirable cities for aspiring millennial homeowners. With a millennial homeownership of 42.4 percent—the largest number of millennial homeowners compared to other metro areas—Minneapolis topped this list. e city had an average millennial home value of $222,528 and the lowest unemployment rate at 2.3 percent. e study indicated that even though home prices in Minneapolis were higher relative to other cities on the list, mortgages were relatively affordable and the city ranked highly among millennials thanks to high salaried jobs available there. Coming in second was St. Louis with an average millennial home value of $167,791 and its relatively affordable mortgage as well as low unemployment rate. e study said that over 40 percent millennials in this city were homeowners thanks to a vibrant startup scene. Nashville with an average millennial home value of $213,090; Indianapolis with an average millennial home value of $161,856; and Kansas City, Missouri, with an average millennial home value of $170,254 rounded up the top 5 of the 20-city list. Other cities that made it to the list included, Louisville; Oklahoma City; Detroit; Pittsburgh; San Antonio; Cincinnati; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina; Denver; Columbus, Ohio;

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