Philly singles pay $6,000+ more in rent than their coupled counterparts

Single renters paying for a one-bedroom apartment in Philly are spending $6,226 a year more than couples living together, according to new research from Zillow.

“Living alone has its perks — you never have to share a bathroom, you have a claim to the TV at all times, and dirty dishes can stack up as long as you want, judgment free. But all that freedom comes with a cost,” Amanda Pendleton, Zillow home trends expert, said in a news release.

Zillow analyzed the cost of one-bedroom apartments in the 50 most populous U.S. cities to calculate what it has dubbed the “singles tax.” Overall, Philly ranked 34th on Zillow’s analysis. In New York, single renters are spending nearly $20,000 more on rent annually, and San Francisco wasn’t too far behind, with renters who live alone paying a $14,114 “singles tax.”

» READ MORE: Philly’s housing market is changing. Here are 5 takeaways from recent trends.

Single renters might be encouraged to hear that they’re saving money in one way: It’s cheaper to rent than own a home in Philly, even though rents have risen faster than home prices. That’s according to a recent analysis from Attom that looked at housing costs as a proportion of average wages.

A three-bedroom rental in Philly was $1,650, up 10% from last year, and the median home sales price in 2022 was about 9% higher than the year before. The average weekly wage in 2022 was $1,437.

In Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, it’s also more affordable to rent than own, but in New Jersey’s Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties, it costs less to own than to rent.

Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, was the only large county where buying a home was more affordable than renting.