By Alice Kantor
If you’re looking for a place to find love, New York City isn’t it.
In fact, the best place for singles looking to relocate right now is Wichita, Kansas, according to an analysis by the real estate company Zillow, which ranked the top 100 US cities, based on the availability and affordability of apartments for single people, as well the share of the local population that isn’t married.
Wichita, a city of about 400,000 people that is roughly halfway between Manhattan and San Francisco, led the way because the typical monthly rent for a single person there is $966, according to Zillow. The report noted that Wichita doesn’t have a large single population but is the most attractive place to relocate to because of its “incredible affordability.” New York didn’t make the top 10. Four cities in Texas were near the top, as well as Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C.
“Metro areas like Wichita, where your housing dollar stretches further, are particularly appealing at a time when, nationally, rents are nearly 16% higher than last year,” said Amanda Pendleton, a trends expert at Zillow.
Single people, who make up a majority of renters across the country and typically earn lower incomes than married people, are grappling with higher costs for everything from gas and food to rent and electricity. Housing, in particular, has stretched budgets across the US, with home prices and rent surging during the pandemic amid a shortage of affordable places to live.
Rental prices for one-bedroom apartments were up 11.4% in June compared to the previous year, according to rental marketplace Zumper, fueled by low inventory and people moving back to cities. In Manhattan, median apartment rents hit $4,000 for the first time ever in May.
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