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DENVER (KDVR) — Denver renters need to earn more than the average U.S. household just to make ends meet for a one-bedroom apartment.

A new analysis of rental data from finance adviser SmartAsset calculated the median rental prices on one and two-bedroom apartments in the country’s 25 largest cities. Researchers applied those numbers to the common financial advice that households should spend no more than 30% of their pretax income on shelter. Households that spend beyond this threshold are termed “cost-burdened.”

Denver’s qualifying income for an apartment rental isn’t the highest among the largest 25 cities, but it is only outstripped by the qualifying incomes in coastal metros.

Denver renters should make just under $74,000 a year to afford a one-bedroom apartment without being cost-burdened. This is slightly less than a Seattle apartment but more than a Chicago apartment.

This is beyond the national real median household income, which was $70,784 in 2021.

For a two-bedroom apartment, Denver renters need to make $97,661 a year to not be cost-burdened.

A separate report finds Denver to not only have a high cost of apartment rentals but a high cost of rent at the room level.

Property management firm Bungalow authored a report on rent per room across 13 of the cities in which it operates. The average Denver renter pays $1,023 per room – roughly the cost of rent per room in Seattle and Boston.