Nearly half of US renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs
Nearly half of US renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs
Nearly half of all renter households in the US were cost-burdened in 2023, meaning they paid more than 30% of their income towards housing costs, according to new government data.
i'm over half, and expecting yet another rent increase soon.
Who are the half that make the 7 figures required to not spend half your income on housing?
Did they just fully make up have the surveyed population?
$1400/mo, the rough figure from the article, is 30% of $56k/yr. If you made $1m, 30% of that would give you $25,000/mo. How do you figure?
I wonder if it's net or gross.
Besides, it's not seven figures, just mid-six figures necessary for that.
The typical "30% on income" advice is based on gross, not net. Which is about 93,000 a year for the median mortgage payment right now.
Just to point out, with the median mortgage at $2349 a month, it's more like you need a household income of $93,000 a year (probably closer to $100k with utilities and other expenses) for your housing costs to equal 30% of your income. That is steep for a lot of people, but still much more attainable than 7 figures. A quick Google says that makes up around 37% of US households as of 2022. Still doesn't quite add up to their figures, admittedly, unless "nearly half" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
Maybe roommates?
I lived in a place that cost 800$ a month for a room in the bay area and I was taking home more than 60% of my income working full time.
It's doable, and it doesn't mean only rich people aren't rent burdened...
If you move outside the city, shit gets much, much cheaper. Mortgages are easily $1,750/mo ($300k, 30yr, tax + insurance included). If your goal is to live in NYC or Seattle, you will be spending quite a bit on your chosen lifestyle. If your goal instead is to buy/rent an affordable 2-3br home, there are lots of options.
I literally cannot remember a point in my life when I wasn't spending half or more of my income on rent/mortgage.
same. I remember being told 1/3 was the ideal, and thinking "you aren't spending twice that?"
Yup, and every time you get a raise it's offset by rent. Fun times
I'm wondering if the people in this thread who are saying they pay less than 30% of their income on rent as if it's some sort of trick or achievement actually understand percentages since they don't seem to understand that the "nearly half" part of the headline puts them in the majority...
Same people that refuse a pay raise because they don’t understand the core concept of tax tables.
they make your walls so thin so you can hear your landlord masturbating to this
I actually thought 30% housing was the norm for the past 10 years?
The goal but never the reality.
Ideally rent should be 1/4th or less of your budget
LOL
We should build and fund more public housing.
Unfortunately, a large chunk of the country doesn't believe the government can or should do anything, so I guess that's a difficult pitch to make.
This is the solution. Unfortunately in the United States when most people think of government housing you think of run down slums.
We need to follow the examples of Austria's social housing. https://youtu.be/41VJudBdYXY
I was renting from 2009-2017. My threshold was $1000. Once they raised my rent above that I was out. So in all that time my rent increased ~$100-150. That was for an 1140 sq/ft, 2 bed, 1 bath apartment including the extra I paid for a detached single garage. I looked up the same apartment today. It’s $1750 and they don’t even post the garage prices. I’m gonna say probably $1900 all in for the same thing today. So a ~$900 increase in a similar timespan. Oof.
The apartment wasn’t anything special. Cheap carpet, old appliances but everything worked. It was showing its age but it was being maintained.
I worked in the largest city in the state but got an apartment ~25 miles away cause it was way cheaper than downtown. It was only a couple minutes drive from the highway and a tram station. So commuting wasn’t terrible. For a bit there my work even paid for the tram.
Even back then there was muttering about rent going up for the foreseeable future. Glad I got out of the renting situation cause it’s so much worse than I could have ever imagined.
My rent doubled in five years.
The place I used to rent is also doubled.
Everything doubled.
Except for wages.
I wish. I'm at a little below half lately.
Us too.
And that is only going to go up. In my area at least, the price of rent has gone up ~15% per year for the last 5 years. In 5 more years the apartment I was renting will cost more per year than my house payment.
nothing but greed drives it.
Your daily reminder that basic housing should be absolutely zero fucking dollars because housing should be a human right, and anything above 0% should be criminal.
Being a right =/= costing $0 for everyone.
Anything we humans need for fundamental existence in today's society should be free to the individual, and be a cost we all pay as a society to respect the existence of other human beings. Anything above that is up to the individual to either provide for themselves, or receive as a result of the value they contribute to society through labor.
That's my broader belief system, and thus, housing falls under that for me. The better we meet individual's needs, the easier it becomes for them to contribute back to society, and experience upward class mobility.
I believe that if we are to make housing a right, we can't even just say it's a right "unless you have no job," or "unless you're unable to fork over $500 a month," because employment is ultimately up to the discretion of employers, who, even today, don't even consider most unhoused people for jobs, because they don't have stable housing, but to get stable housing, those people need jobs. (this even applies to many shelters, which will require unhoused people to either be employed, or be constantly seeking employment)
We know that adding hoops to jump through to get welfare assistance only harms those who need to depend on it the most, without providing any significant socioeconomic benefit, so why should we apply that same logic to housing, if we determine that it should be a right of all human beings?
I'm not saying the housing has to be great. It doesn't need to be spacious, have all the amenities, or even have things like good quality lighting or good soundproofing from adjacent housing units, but at a bare minimum, everyone deserves somewhere to live.
I know that rent has gone up, but you definitely can hack it. I never spent more than 30% of my take home pay on rent. I managed that by looking at places that fit my budget or living with roommates. Pretty much you won’t have very good luck if you’re a single person trying to rent your own place though. In terms of finding places within budget, I always avoided any type of new buildings built in the last five to ten years or so. The cost of those is usually highest. They’ll promise flashy amenities, but it’s usually not worth it. Also, avoid corporate landlords. If you can, find a mom and pop landlord that’s been in business for awhile. They usually have better deals and don’t go up on rent every year provided you’re a good tenant that pays on time and doesn’t cause any stresses for them. You’ll have the best luck with this if you stick to places where people list their own properties like Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, etc. Avoid spots that corporate landlords use like apartments.com.
Edit: Or, don’t. Ignore this advice and pay through the nose. You’ll be renting forever.