Tuesday, November 10, 2015

By John Voket The U.S. home ownership rate at its lowest since 1967, while the U.S. renter population now stands at 43 million households. I turned once again to researchers at ApartmentList.com, who crunched big data to determine how hard-pressed renters are to make monthly payments while juggling the rest of their living expenses.

Researchers at Apartment List say the share of US renters facing cost burdens has risen from 24 percent in 1960 to 38 percent in the year 2000. Since then, rents have continued to rise steadily, increasing by 3.2 percent last year – twice the pace of overall inflation.

The past few years have seen a corresponding share of cost-burdened renters paying 30 percent or more of their annual income rising to 40 percent or higher in all but two states as of 2013. Only North and South Dakota are holding a minuscule percentage under 40 percent - followed by neighboring Nebraska, Wyoming and Iowa, along with Oklahoma hovering in the 40 - 45 percent range.

The Apartment List report highlights the following key points:

• Cost-burdened renters in the US have increased from 49.3 percent in 2007 to 51.8 percent in 2014
• Surprisingly, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, and Austin performed relatively well - incomes have largely increased in line with rent growth.
• Miami, Detroit, and Los Angeles were among the worst performers in the study, with more than 60 percent of cost-burdened renters.
• The share of moderately burdened renters paying 31 to 49 percent has remained relatively flat at approximately 25 percent.
• The share of severely burdened renters paying 50 percent or more reached 26.3 percent in 2014.
• With high rents eating into funds that should be set aside for health emergencies, a down payment on a home, or retirement fund, Apartment List experts expect this "cost burdened" trend will have a negative impact on home ownership rates in the future.

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