How Much Do Women REALLY Spend On Rent?

If you are lucky enough not to have parents who regale you with stories of NYC life in the early '80s, I will gladly lend you mine. To sum up their tales of wonder: A loaf of bread was 50 cents, the rent was $150 a month, Ed Koch, hooray. My, how times have changed.

You've likely heard the (now somewhat ancient) advice that you shouldn't spend more than 30% of your monthly income on housing. Of course, in high-rent cities like New York, that percentage can creep up to 40% or 50% or worse. In fact, in recent years, the average NYC family may spend almost two-thirds of their monthly household income on rent. Yikes.

But statistics are one thing; the real stories of individual people are another. We wanted to find out how much money women across the country are making each month, and how much of that they immediately hand over towards their rent. Plus, we asked these women whether they're happy with the amount of funds coming in versus those trickling out. Would they prefer the grand old days of the legendary $100 apartment? Nope. Turns out, most of them are pretty happy where they are.

From Brooklyn to Oregon, here's what working women are spending on housing — and what that means for the dreaded paycheck-to-rent-check ratio.