More than half of U.S. renter households are spending an unsustainable share of their income on housing, wiping out affordability gains made over the past decade. According to a recent report from Apartment List, using U.S. Census data, 51.8% of renters were cost-burdened in 2023, up from 48.4% in 2019.
Despite an uptick in new housing supply and falling rents in some markets, affordability has worsened. Analysts attribute this to the rapid rent spikes of 2021 and 2022, which outpaced wage growth and left a record 22 million renter households paying more than 30% of their income on housing. Of those, 26.4% are “severely cost-burdened,” spending over half their income on rent.
Florida continues to lead the nation in rental stress. Statewide, 62% of households exceed the affordability threshold, with Miami, Tampa, and Cape Coral topping the list of metros with the highest share of cost-burden renters. Tampa alone saw its rate of cost-burdened renters climb 8.4 percentage points since 2019, one of the steepest increases among major U.S. markets.
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While Sun Belt metros like Dallas and Phoenix struggle with affordability due to rapid population growth, even traditionally budget-friendly cities aren’t immune. In Des Moines, a historically affordable market, 43% of renters still spend more than they can afford on rent.
Economists note that while new housing supply has helped slow rent growth in some areas, it hasn’t kept pace with demand, which is being fueled by high mortgage rates locking would-be buyers into rentals. Moreover, most new units cater to the high end of the market, leaving fewer options for renters seeking housing priced below or near the average rent for their area.
This shift in supply dynamics has further squeezed renters as wage growth stagnates. Between 2019 and 2023, inflation outpaced income gains, eroding renters' purchasing power and making newer, pricier units less accessible. The gap between rising housing costs and wages continues to strain rental markets, particularly in areas with limited inventory of mid- and lower-priced units.
Apartment List found that the number of cost-burdened households in the U.S. grew by 2.1 million between 2019 and 2023, reflecting the impact of a rental market increasingly dominated by higher-priced units. Without stronger wage growth or efforts to expand access to affordable housing, the financial pressures on renters are likely to worsen.
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