Renters feel priced-out

Metro Phoenix’s rapidly rising rents are putting the squeeze on many, even with the state’s higher minimum wage.

Just ask any Millennial trying to find a place they can afford to lease in central Phoenix, Scottsdale or Tempe.

Phoenix-area rents have jumped almost 15 percent during the past few years.

Glendale led the nation for the biggest rent increase in April — a staggering 11.5 percent.

Even with a higher minimum wage, it takes a lot of work, literally, to afford a Valley rental.

A Phoenix-area renter making $10 an hour — the new minimum — has to work 58 hours a week to afford a decent place to live, according to a new study.

Rental crunch

Arizona’s almost $2 bump in its minimum wage helps but isn’t enough to ease the crunch for many of the Valley’s 600,000 renters.

To afford a studio in metro Phoenix, a renter needs to earn $12 an hour. For a one-bedroom, the wage goes up to $14.50 an hour, according to the National LowIncome Housing Coalition’s latest research.

“People earning the higher minimum wage can still only afford rent of $520, including utilities,” Val Iverson, executive director of the Arizona Housing Alliance, told me. “Anyone would be hardpressed to find a safe, decent (metro Phoenix) apartment in that price range.”

The 10,000 new apartments going up or recently completed in the Phoenix area won’t immediately help a lot of renters. Most of the new complexes are high-end with rents well above $520 a month.

But if too many new apartments open up in the Valley and don’t fill up quickly, it could put pressure on rents at older complexes. That could help some renters.

Not enough affordable rentals

Iverson said Arizona needs at least 210,000 more affordable rentals.

There’s a two-year waiting list to rent at the affordable apartment complex Devine Legacy on Central, in midtown Phoenix, The 65-apartment complex, across from light rail, is one of only a few new apartments in the area where people can rent for $600 or less.

“There’s not enough affordable housing in Arizona, no matter how far out you drive,” Diana Yazzie Devine, CEO of Native American Connections, told me.