Renters always get the same advice: Don’t spend more than 30% of your income on housing. That’s not just an anecdotal recommendation. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, households that spend more than 30% of their income on rent are “housing-cost burdened.” And the heavier that burden gets, the more difficult it is to afford food, utilities, and other necessary living expenses. But how feasible is the 30% rule?
Depending on your city and your occupation, it can be exceedingly difficult. And it’s not just a concern for low-income households: The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard estimates that nearly half of all U.S. renters face a cost burden.
Some of these renters are facing exorbitantly high housing costs, and some might simply be living beyond their means, so we’ll dig into the incomes of burdened renters later on. But we’ll start by taking a look at the 19 U.S. cities that have the highest percent of cost-burdened renters in the country.
Of the 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas with the most renters, these 19 have the highest proportions of renters facing a cost burden. All of these cities had at least 54% of their renters spending more than 30% of their income on rent, but Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach took the lead by a wide margin. Almost 64% of its renters — the vast majority of whom earn less than $35,000 per year — are cost-burdened. (If we remove our population limits, however, and consider all metropolitan areas, Atlantic City rises to the top with an incredible 65.54% of its renters cost-burdened.)
Almost half the cities on this list — including Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Sacramento — are in California, a state whose rental costs are projected to keep rising through 2018. Aside from the Miami area, Florida also contributed two more MSAs to the list: Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford. New York City-Newark-Jersey City, to no surprise, makes the list, despite a recent slowing in rental rate climbs.
In almost every case, the majority of the cost-burdened renters are making less than $20,000, followed surprisingly closely by the $20,000 to $34,999 income range. In Springfield, MA, an enormous 57.63% of cost-burdened renters are making less than $20,000, followed by Fresno, CA, with 51.98%, and New Orleans-Metairie, LA, with 51.82%.
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