Even for families who make well over minimum wage, paying for housing in Ohio and across the country remains a difficult task, according to a report issued this week.

According to the report, Out of Reach 2010, the housing wage an Ohio resident needs to afford a two-bedroom residence is $13.39 per hour, up nearly 30 percent over the last decade.

The report was issued by the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The housing wage is the amount of money a person who works 40 hours per week every week must earn to afford rent and utilities in the private market.

The number is nearly identical in the Dayton area, $13.38 per hour. In Springfield, the housing wage for a two-bedroom place is $12.46, researchers found.

Bill Faith, executive director of the coalition, said the recession and an increase in landlords ending up in foreclosure have caused the situation to worsen.

Faith said the rental market has stabilized and, while prices have increased somewhat, they haven’t gone up dramatically. But the higher costs come at a time of high unemployment and stagnant wages in the state, he said.

The study also found that 43 percent of Ohio renters didn’t make enough to pay for a two-bedroom place at fair market rental rates, Faith said. And, in cases where pay falls short of the housing wage, the renters end up spending a larger percentage of their income on housing.

“Other things and their quality of life suffer because they can’t afford the basic cost of housing,” he said. “What we see is most people just pay it.”

Nationally, the report found that the average fair-market rate for an apartment was $959. A consumer would need to earn $18.44 per hour, or about $38,360 per year, to afford a rental home. Economic deterioration in the major metropolitan areas resulted in two states — Michigan and Oklahoma — seeing a decline in the housing wage, the National Low Income Housing Coalition found.

Staff writer Tim Tresslar covers commercial and residential real estate for Dayton Daily News. His Real Estate Notebook appears every Sunday. He can be reached at (937) 225-7317 or via e-mail at ttresslar@coxohio.com.