Approximately what percentage of your monthly income goes toward housing?

Background

Housing affordability is one of the most pressing economic concerns facing American households today. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines families as cost-burdened when they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, a threshold widely used by government agencies and researchers. According to the 2024 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median renter spent 31 percent of income on housing costs, while homeowners with a mortgage spent a median of 21.4 percent. Yet averages obscure the severity of the crisis for many: the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that a record 22.6 million renter households were cost-burdened in 2023, and data from the National Association of Home Builders shows that a median-income family in early 2025 needed roughly 35 to 36 percent of its income just to cover a mortgage on a median-priced home. For lower-income families earning half the median, that figure climbed to over 70 percent.

Supporters of greater government intervention argue that the market alone cannot close the gap between wages and housing costs, pointing to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's finding that 87 percent of extremely low-income renters face some level of cost burden. They advocate for expanded rental vouchers, increased construction of affordable units, and stronger tenant protections. Those who favor market-based approaches counter that regulatory barriers, zoning restrictions, and tariffs on building materials drive up construction costs and restrict supply. The National Association of Home Builders has called on policymakers to remove regulatory roadblocks and improve the business climate so builders can produce more attainable housing, noting that even modest declines in home prices and mortgage rates have improved affordability slightly.

What is at stake extends well beyond monthly budgets. Research compiled by the County Health Rankings program links housing cost burden to higher stress, poorer health outcomes, and difficulty affording food, transportation, and medical care. The crisis does not affect everyone equally: Census Bureau data show that 56 percent of Black renter households were cost-burdened in 2023, and affordability varies enormously by region, from about 20 percent of income in cities like El Paso to over 60 percent in parts of coastal California and South Florida. With home prices having risen roughly 60 percent since 2019 and the national homeownership rate declining for the first time in eight years, the choices voters and policymakers make about zoning, subsidies, and housing supply will shape whether more Americans can afford a stable place to live.