For young people getting ready to move out on their own, Pittsburgh is one of the most affordable metro areas in the United States, according to a recent report.<\/p>\n
Rove Lab, a furniture brand, looked at the 100 most populous metropolitan areas around American and ranked them based on their affordability in an August 2026 report.<\/p>\n
The study used 2022 and 2025 wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; and 2022 and 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine metro areas’ affordability. Based on that data, metro areas were given a score out of a possible 100.<\/p>\n
Here’s where Pittsburgh ranked.<\/p>\n
Where does Pittsburgh rank among most affordable city’s for young people?<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh ranked at No. 7 among the most affordable metro areas in the U.S. for young adults, according to Rove Lab.<\/p>\n
These are the top 10 most affordable metro areas for young people, according to the study:<\/p>\n
No. 1: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, ArkansasNo. 2: Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TexasNo. 3: Des Moines-West Des Moines, IowaNo. 4: Baton Rouge, LouisianaNo. 5: Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TennesseeNo. 6: Durham-Chapel Hill, North CarolinaNo. 7: Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaNo. 8: Charleston-North Charleston, South CarolinaNo. 9: Wichita, KansasNo. 10: Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas<\/p>\n
How affordable is Pittsburgh for young people? Why?<\/p>\n
Rove Lab examined numerous factors to determine Pittsburgh’s affordability. Here’s a breakdown of what they found:<\/p>\n
Average annual wage: $74,041Wage growth from 2022 to 2025: 10.0%Median monthly rent and utilities: $1,083Rent-to-income ratio: 17.6%Cost of living compared to national average: -5.33%Employment growth from 2022 to 2025: 4.3%Young adult population age 22 to 34: 16.3%Rental availability: 6.1%Vacant rental units: 20,614Arts and recreation rate per 100,000 residents: 46.3Restaurant and bar rate per 100,000 residents: 224.2Overall score (of out a possible 100): 71.50<\/p>\n
Finch Walker is the Pittsburgh Connect Reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Contact Walker at FWalker@usatodayco.com. Instagram: @finchwalker_. X: @_finchwalker.<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pittsburgh ranks among most affordable US cities for young adults<\/p>\n
Reporting by Finch Walker, USA TODAY NETWORK \/ USA TODAY<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
This story was originally published September 19, 2026 at 6:42 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For young people getting ready to move out on their own, Pittsburgh is one of the most affordable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-289697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}