In the US. According to a Harvard study: three out of 10 tenants spend more than half of their salary on rent

The unaffordability in USA has soared to new heights, a report published by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies. At the national level, half of all renters now spend more than 30% of their salary on rent and utilitiesthe center found after analyzing data from the 2022 census.

He US government says that one rent-to-income ratio of 30% is the point at which Americans see themselves “burdened with costs”and that description applies to 22.4 million homes According to census data, a increase of approximately 10% from 2019and the highest number ever recorded (The United States had 44 million renter housing units in 2022.)

The study points out an additional, even more alarming statistic: the number of “severely cost-burdened households” (the group even deeper in them, whose rents consume more than 50% of their annual income) increased to 12.1 million. This increase marks “an all-time high” for the most affected group, the report says, equivalent to almost three in 10 American households and 1.5 million more than pre-pandemic levels.

The number of tenants who spend more than half of their salary on rent has increasedTomas Sereda

The problem seems to be equality of opportunity, which affects all income levels. But the authors point out that the burden of rental costs grew disproportionately for Americans middle class.

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Since 2019, the share of households earning between US$45.000 y US$75.000 and that are considered “cost burdened” grew by 5.4%. Among higher-income households, the cost-burdened rate increased by 2.2%, and households in the lower segment (less than $30,000) registered a 1.5% increasealthough they are “a population that is already dealing with persistently high burdens,” the authors note.

The data suggest that the rental markets are cooling. Los Manhattan median rents fell in November for the first time in 27 months, mirroring trends in other major US cities. But they remain disproportionately high (Apartment List says the median rental price has increased 19% since the start of the pandemic, from $1,158 to $1,379); and lately, research has put into stark context the struggles of renters to survive in expensive cities with decent wages.

Evictions are on the rise in the United StatesCast Of Thousands – Shutterstock

Meanwhile, evictions are increasing y The debt Americans owe is growing. Los Monthly payments are $300 higher today than in 2020, according to a LendingTree survey. Compounding the housing shortage is the fact that the problem goes beyond the United States having too few affordable units. Many residential buildings are aging and need maintenance, either to accommodate an aging American population or to be able to structurally withstand extreme heat and more violent weather in the future.

He Harvard report He concludes by pointing out a silver lining of sorts for middle-class households hit by the rental crisis, which is that it’s now getting more attention. Suddenly, local governments are struggling to rethink zoning laws, be more creative about housing types, offer incentives to developers to participate and find other ways to ensure affordable housing is built in good neighborhoods.

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The scope of investment needed to achieve this may seem substantial, but “so is the cost of inaction,” the document warns: “The instability caused by the lack of affordable housing “It is transferred to other public expenses, threatening the well-being of millions of people.”

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RentalsReal EstateUnited StatesHarvard

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