Renters More Likely Than Homeowners to Spend More Than 30 percent of Income on Housing in Almost All Counties

Over 19 million U.S. renter households spent more than 30% of their income on housing costs in 2021, according to data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates released today.

Households are considered cost burdened when they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, mortgage and other housing needs.

The burden was especially high in some of the nation's largest counties where housing is more expensive or in areas where incomes are low.

The ACS collects a variety of housing cost information for renters (monthly rent and utility bills) and for homeowners (mortgage principal and interest, real estate taxes, homeowner's insurance, utilities, mobile home costs, second mortgage payments and condominium fees if applicable).

Out of the 44 million renter households, the vast majority (41 million) paid rent and had household income. Households with zero or negative income, or those in rented units not paying cash rent, were excluded from calculations.

In 239 or 7.6 percent of the nation's 3,143 counties, more than half of renter households that paid rent and had a household income faced housing cost burdens.

Among them are some of the most populous U.S. counties like Harris County, Texas, and Los Angeles County, California. Over 15.8 million renters, roughly one-third of all renter households in the nation, lived in these 239 counties.

In contrast to the prevalence of burden faced by renters, the median housing cost ratio for homeowners rarely topped 30 percent, and homeowners with and without a mortgage frequently had lower overall housing costs than renters.

Homeowners in only 18 counties – less than half a percent of all counties – had a higher housing cost ratio than renters. In fact, there were only two counties where the median housing cost ratio for homeowners (with a mortgage) was above 30 percent: Taliaferro County, Georgia, and Trinity County, California.

High Housing Cost Burden Most Common in South, Large Metros

Nearly half of the counties where renters had the highest median housing cost ratios were in the South. Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi were among the states with the largest number of counties where renters' median housing costs exceeded 30 percent of their income.

But among states with more than 10 counties where the median cost ratio was a burden, New Jersey has the highest proportion of counties with cost burdened renter households.

Texas has 254 counties twelve of those counties has a median cost ratio greater than 30 percent. Harris county had 707,781 renter households in 2021. Statistics show that more than half of renter households that paid rent and have household income spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs.

But areas where renters were cost burdened the most were not always the same areas where homeowners faced the highest costs.

For example, there were no counties where the median cost ratio exceeded 30 percent for homeowners who owned their home free and clear and did not have a mortgage.

The difference between renters and homeowners was clear in counties where renters had high housing cost ratios.

The cost ratio and total number of households with and without a mortgage for select counties in 2021.

In Howard County the median housing cost for renters in 2021 was 26.6 percent an increase of 2.1 percent. The count of occupied units paying rent was 3576 an increase of 379. The count of occupied housing units for the same year was 12,062 an increase of 302.

The American Community Survey is one of more than 50 surveys conducted every year by the U.S. Census Bureau field representatives.

More information on this survey as well as the many other surveys including the Deceniall Census conducted every 10 years can be found at www. census.gov.