You need to make $50 an hour to afford rent in San Diego
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Local households need to earn about $50 per hour to afford the average monthly asking rent of $2,606 in San Diego County, according to a new housing report.
The big picture: San Diego is the 12th-priciest rental market in the U.S., and while renting is cheaper than homeownership, it's unaffordable for many.
Zoom in: The income needed to afford rent is nearly three times San Diego's minimum hourly wage of $17.75, per the San Diego County 2026 Affordable Housing Needs Report released Friday. Those employees earn about $3,077 per month.
- Home health and personal care aides, child care workers, janitors and cleaners, and retail sales employees all earn less than $4,000 a month, per the report.
- Asking rents in San Diego County increased by about 22% or $466 between 2020 and 2025, per the report.
The fine print: The affordability measure is based on a household spending 30% or less of its income on rent for a two-bedroom apartment.
- The report found 79% of extremely low-income households in San Diego County are paying more than half of their income on housing.
