In five U.S. cities, homeowners are spending about a third of their monthly incomes on typical housing costs, according to a new report.
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As housing costs remain stubbornly high after years of inflation, driven in part by the COVID housing market and interest rate hikes, more homeowners are becoming cost-burdened, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The metric is used to measure the percentage of the area’s typical income needed to pay for the cost of housing in the area.
“One way we measure housing affordability is based on how much households spend on selected costs such as mortgage payments, insurance, taxes, utilities and various fees,” said Jacob Fabina, a Census Bureau economist. “In 2024, the median percentage of income householders with a mortgage spent on these costs was 21.4 percent, which points to an increased burden on homeowners.”
The consumer group ConsumerAffairs analyzed median household income and typical housing costs from the Census and ranked cities by the most and least cost-burdened, or “house poor.”
Nearly 60 percent of the homes owned in the U.S. have a mortgage.
Among states where homeowners have a mortgage, California ($3,001), Hawaii ($2,937), New Jersey ($2,797), Massachusetts ($2,755) and the District of Columbia ($3,181) had the highest median monthly housing costs.
The Census Bureau found that median gross rent, including utilities, grew to $1,487 in 2024, up 2.7 percent from a year earlier.
“Despite this rise in cost, the median percentage of income going towards rent did not increase in 2024, staying at 31 percent,” Fabina said.
