Out of Reach

To afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent in New Jersey, full-time workers need to earn $43.89 per hour, an increase of $3.90 per hour from last year. This is NJ’s “Housing Wage” for 2026 according to Out of Reach, a report published jointly today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the Housing and Community Development Network of NJ (the Network). The average renter in the Garden State earns $24.92 per hour, an increase of a mere $0.95 from last year, making NJ the fifth most expensive place for renters in the nation.

Released annually, Out of Reach highlights the gulf between wages and what people need to earn to afford their rents and shows how affordable rental homes are out of reach for millions of low-wage workers and other families across the United States. The report’s “Housing Wage” is an estimate of the hourly wage full-time workers must earn to afford a two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent – currently $2,282 a month for New Jersey’s rental market – without spending more than 30 percent of their incomes. According to this year’s report, the national 2026 Housing Wage is $34.73 per hour for a modest two-bedroom rental home. Read More

Links of Interest 

• Fact sheet
• NJ County Ranking
• Full Data Set
• NJ Job Occupation Wages
• Out of Reach State Rankings
• National Low Income Housing Coalition Out of Reach webpage