In the Media

A record 22.4 million renter households are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities as evictions and homelessness surge, according to a recent report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

It’s easy to feel defeated by the American housing system’s dysfunction. But The State of Housing Design, a book that the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard (JCHS) published in October last year, shows how new architecture is grappling with these realities.

Rent reached historic highs in 2021 and 2022, the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University report found. And currently, more Americans are burdened by rent than ever before. Harvard defines "cost-burdened households" as those that spend more than 30% of income on rent and utilities.

The nation's overall housing supply already faces a severe shortage and challenges, according to the report America's Rental Housing 2024 by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), as the number of renter households spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities has reached a new high of 22.4 million, while the median age of renters is now 44.

Excerpted from The State of Housing Design 2023, edited by The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Reprinted with permission from Harvard University Press.

A report issued by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University last month found that in 2022, an unprecedented 50 percent of U.S. renters spent 30 percent or more of their income on rent and utilities. Worse still, nearly half of that group are severely cost-burdened, dedicating more than 50 percent of their income to housing costs.

From coast to coast, housing has emerged as perhaps the biggest statehouse issue this year. The number of households considered by the federal government to be rent-burdened — meaning that rent consumes more than 30 percent of their income — climbed to a record high of 22.4 million in 2022, according to a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

The change nationwide comes even as the influx of new residents continues. Last year there were 44.3 million renter households in the US — about 34% of all US households — according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

Rent has skyrocketed in the United States. That means Americans are handing over a bigger portion of their paycheck to their housing costs, leaving less money for things like food, electricity and commuting. The pandemic and inflation have both played a role in pushing rents higher, but Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, senior research associate at Harvard's Joint Center on Housing Studies, says it's not all bad news.

This dynamic is one factor driving historically large percentages of older Americans to carry mortgage debt into their senior years, according to a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. In 2022, researchers found that just over 40 percent of homeowners older than 64 had a mortgage, a jump from roughly 25 percent a generation ago.