Americans Are Paying Way Too Much On Rent, And It’s Only Going To Get Worse

by Bryce Covert

More than a quarter of renters in the United States have to put half of their income toward paying rent. But that’s not the bad news. The bad news is that things are almost certainly going to get worse.

A new report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Enterprise Community Partners Inc shows that in 2013, 11.2 million households who rented, or 26.5 percent of the total, were severely burdened, or their rent consumed more than half of their income. While that’s a slight dip from the record high of 11.3 million reached in 2011, it’s risen by nearly 60 percent, adding more than 3 million people, since 2000. About half of all renters are paying more than the recommended 30 percent of income toward rent.