In the media

Newspaper, phone, and a coffee cup

Our research is regularly cited in national and local news outlets; below is some of our recent press coverage.

To be added to our media list, or if you have an interview request, please contact [email protected] and include your name, press affiliation, phone number, questions/topic, and your deadline. Please do not email our researchers directly. 

(For copyright permission, complete form and send to [email protected])

The New Republic

America’s Rent Crisis Is Getting Worse

You’re considered to be “cost-burdened” if you pay more than 30 percent of your income in rent and utilities, and a new study from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that in 2022—the most recent year for which data is available—the cost-burdened constituted half of all renters nationwide. Half of all renters couldn’t afford what they paid in rent.

The Washington Post

Rent has never been less affordable, especially for the middle class

Half of American renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs — a key benchmark for affordability — with the financial strain rising the fastest for middle-class tenants. That’s according to a new report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, which found that the number of such renters, considered to be “cost-burdened,” hit a record 22.4 million in 2022 — up 2 million from just three years before.

The Wall Street Journal

The Rise of the Forever Renters

“A lot of that growth is coming from renters who are married, who have a college education and in some ways fit the profile of what would have been first-time home buyers,” says Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a rental-housing researcher at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The New York Times

As Need Rises, Housing Aid Hits Lowest Level in Nearly 25 Years

“We’re not just treading water — we’re falling further behind,” said Chris Herbert, the managing director of the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, which prepared the analysis at the request of The New York Times. “That was an eye-opener, even for me.”

CBS News

Homelessness in America reaches record level amid rising rents and end of COVID aid

But the post-pandemic years have delivered a financial double-whammy that has hit vulnerable Americans particularly hard. For one, government supports that helped people weather the economic turmoil of the pandemic drew to an end, cutting off funds and protections.

Secondly, rents have surged, pushing cost burdens for renters to their highest recorded level, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Almost 9 in 10 low-income households with incomes below $15,000 spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2021, the analysis found.

The New York Times

Record Rent Burdens Batter Low-Income Life

Nearly two-thirds of households in the bottom 20 percent of incomes face “severe cost burdens,” meaning they pay more than half of their income for rent and utilities, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.