Renting

Just in time for Valentine’s Day: The ‘singles tax’ strikes again

RentHop ranks Boston the fourth-most-expensive city for singles in the country, trailing behind only Detroit, Miami, and New York City.

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February 13, 2025

2 minutes to read

Sorry, singles. There’s more bad news this Valentine’s Day.

RentHop released its 2024 Singles Index on Jan. 21, and for Boston renters, the results may hurt worse than seeing your ex post a new relationship.

Boston is the fourth-most-expensive city for singles in the country, trailing only Detroit, Miami, and New York City. Renters in Boston spend about 36 percent of their income on housing.

“Households are considered cost-burdened when they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, mortgage payments, and other housing costs,” according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Households spending more than 50% of their income on housing costs are considered severely cost-burdened.”

Least affordable cities for singles

RANK	CITY	MEDIAN RENT STUDIO	MEDIAN INCOME FOR SINGLES	RENT COST AS % OF INCOME
1.	New York City	$3,375	$59,947	67.56%
2.	Miami	$2,050	$45,956	53.53%
3.	Detroit	$879	$28,196	37.41%
4.	Boston	$2,350	$77,303	36.48%
5.	Los Angeles	$1,775	$59,406	35.85%
6.	Philadelphia	$1,250	$45,022	33.32%
7.	Baltimore	$1,250	$46,020	32.59%
8.	Virginia Beach	$1,595	$59,426	32.21%
9.	Nashville	$1,475	$57,683	30.68%
10.	Houston	$1,274	$49,854	30.67%
11.	San Diego	$1,942	$77,447	30.09%
12.	Memphis	$950	$38,037	29.97%
13.	Fort Worth	$1,257	$50,884	29.64%
14.	Sacramento	$1,475	$61,295	28.88%
15.	Fresno, Calif.	$975	$40,901	28.61%
16.	Dallas	$1,300	$54,660	28.54%
17.	Long Beach, Calif.	$1,495	$62,940	28.5%
18.	Chicago	$1,345	$58,041	27.81%
19.	Raleigh, N.C.	$1,353	$59,595	27.71%
20.	Las Vegas	$1,048	$45,448	27.67%

Source: RentHop

One cause is simple: Things that would theoretically be split in a shared household are not. Plus, with an already limited housing market, single people may struggle to find affordable housing that is of appropriate size for their needs. Additionally, some places in the United States ban people from living together if they do not qualify as family.

A Feb. 6 report from GoBankingRates indicated that to live comfortably in Boston, single people need to make $155,424 annually. Right now, the median income for the whole household is only $94,755, according to the banking site.

While singles in general are worse off in the housing market, single women face an even bigger burden than single men, as they typically make less. In Boston, single female renters make $69,678 on average and spend 40.47 percent on rent compared to their male counterparts, who are earning $85,772 and spending 32.88 percent on rent.

In a breakdown of the top 50 cities in the United States, the study suggested that single women have to spend 1.21 percent more of their annual income on rent than single men.

These are the Top 10 cities where single women are seeing the biggest rental-burden disparities:

RANK	CITY	HOUSING BURDEN SINGLE MALE	HOUSING BURDEN SINGLE FEMALE	FEMALE VS. MALE BURDEN RATIO
1	El Paso	18.12%	34.51%	1.9x
2	Miami	41.89%	71.92%	1.72x
3	Bakersfield, Calif.	22.11%	34.11%	1.54x
4	San Jose	23.02%	35.17%	1.53x
5	Atlanta	20.66%	29.56%	1.43x
6	Jacksonville	22.9%	32.69%	1.43x
7	Seattle	17.39%	24.18%	1.39x
8	Wichita, Kan.	15.31%	20.98%	1.37x
9	Dallas	25.96%	35.16%	1.35x
10	Albuquerque	17.93%	23.63%	1.32x

Source: RentHop

Wichita, Kan., was the least expensive city for singles, with renters having to spend only 18 percent of their income on housing. Columbus, Ohio, Minneapolis, and Seattle followed. No Northeast cities were among the most affordable metros for singles.

RentHop used US census non-family income and non-family household income by sex data to curate their results.