Join us this Wednesday, February 19 for a conversation with Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian on how public health and public safety intersect to address the complex challenges of homelessness.
Non-cash rental arrangements are an important but overlooked source of housing affordability, especially for lower-income and older-adult households with substantial affordability needs.
The number of US households is expected to increase by 8.6 million between 2025-2035, which is less growth than in recent decades, but could be even lower depending on immigration.
After two years of decline, remodeling spending is expected to grow throughout 2025, according to our latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA).
Joint Center for Housing Studies
of Harvard University
Our Center strives to improve equitable access to decent, affordable homes in thriving communities and conducts rigorous research to advance policy and practice.
Restrictive zoning and NIMBY attitudes have left nearly a third of neighborhoods across the United States with few options for renters. We examine the characteristics of these rental deserts, defined as neighborhoods where rental units make up less than 20% of the housing stock, and argue that uneven geographies of rental opportunities bolster patterns of socioeconomic and racial segregation because renters are disproportionately lower-income and people of color.
This paper presents detailed projections for household growth in years 2025–2035 and 2035–2045 along with the data and methodology used to create them. The primary finding is that growth in the number of households in the US is expected to slow in the coming decades. Under the Center’s main projection, the number of households in the US is projected to rise by 8.6 million households, or approximately 860,000 per year, between 2025 and 2035. This would be less household growth than in any of the past three decades.
The number of cost-burdened renter households has reached a new record high, further deepening the affordability challenge that accelerated during the pandemic. Across all income groups, rental affordability has continued to worsen as a growing share of household income has been devoted to rent and cost burden rates have risen.
