At least half of all renters in the United States spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utility bills, more than at any other time in history, according to a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard.
The analysis of 2022 census data by the study’s authors revealed that 22.4 million households are rent-burdened, with a record number of 12.1 million spending more than half of their income on housing. The rise in housing costs affects a broad range of renters, from low-income families to those with higher incomes. Middle-income renters earning between $30,000 and $74,999 reported the steepest increase in rent burden since 2019.
Renters are still paying the financial consequences of the pandemic, when rents in cities across the country surged by double-digit percentages as Americans moved during a period of remote work. Even with the cooling rental market—rents fell by about 1% in 2023—they still reflect a 19% increase since the start of the pandemic, according to Apartment List.
There are reasons for optimism, at least in the short term. The number of vacant homes is higher, and 1 million new multifamily units are under construction, almost all for rent, the largest number the country has seen in decades, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
Source: The New York Times