What Did Rent Cost in 1970? A Shocking Comparison to Today's Housing Crisis

Imagine paying just $108 a month for an apartment in America. That was the median rent in 1970. Fast forward to 2023, and that same median rent has skyrocketed to $1,957—an 18-fold increase in just over 50 years. For middle-class families today, this astronomical jump isn’t just a number on a housing report. It’s reshaping how people live, work, and plan their financial futures.

The Price of Housing Half a Century Ago

Back in 1970, rent was relatively affordable and stable for the average American household. According to a New York Times article from 1973, the median monthly rent for houses and apartments across the U.S. settled at $108. Adjusted for the cost of living at that time, this was accessible for most working families earning a modest income. Housing consumed a manageable portion of a household’s budget, leaving room for other essentials and even some discretionary spending.

The 1970s, however, marked a turning point. The decade brought an economic recession that created the first significant gap in renter affordability, according to research from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. What seemed stable in 1970 began to crack under economic pressure, setting the stage for longer-term affordability challenges.

Today’s Rent Burden: When Half Your Paycheck Vanishes

The crisis facing renters today is starkly different. According to data from U.S. News & World Report, by December 2023, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment had climbed to $1,499, while two-bedroom units averaged $1,856. Overall, the national median rent settled in at $1,957.

These numbers reflect a broader affordability crisis. According to TIME, roughly half of all renters in the U.S. were “cost burdened” in 2022, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing. Even more alarming, over 12 million Americans were spending at least half their entire paycheck just on rent. That’s not just a financial challenge—it’s a lifestyle constraint that limits where people can live, what they can save, and how they plan for their future.

The Great Recession in the late 2000s accelerated this crisis, creating economic instability that contributed to today’s housing affordability emergency.

Why Wages Haven’t Kept Pace With Rents

Here’s where the real squeeze becomes apparent. According to Consumer Affairs, when adjusted for 2022 inflation, the average annual income in the U.S. for 1970 was $24,600. Fifty years later, the national average salary in the fourth quarter of 2023 reached $59,384—roughly a 2.4x increase.

But rent? Rent increased 18 times over. The math is brutal: incomes roughly doubled and a half, while rent nearly multiplied by twenty. This divergence reveals the true hardship facing middle-class renters. Even as wages have grown nominally, they’ve lost the race against housing costs. A worker in 1970 could cover several months of rent with just one month’s salary. Today, that same worker would need nearly a third of their annual income just to cover a year’s rent on a median two-bedroom apartment.

The Affordability Crisis Today

The gap between what people earn and what housing costs has become one of the defining economic challenges of our time. The housing affordability crisis that began in the 1970s never truly resolved—it only intensified. For middle-class families today, rent isn’t just an expense line item. It’s a constraint on their ability to save, invest, build wealth, and secure financial stability.

Understanding how much rent cost in 1970 provides crucial context for today’s housing reality. It reminds us that this isn’t a cyclical problem that will naturally correct itself. It’s a structural shift in the American economy where housing has become fundamentally less affordable for working families.