Renter Housing Affordability Difficulties Span Income Levels

More U.S. renters than ever are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing, or severely cost-burdened, spending more than half, according to a recent Enterprise analysis of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). The findings come following a slight dip in rental costs in 2024 compared to 2023, even as renters throughout the U.S. grappled with continued affordability challenges.

Nationwide, the recent analysis point to two stories of cost challenges for renters: The lowest-income households continue to face persistent rent burdens, and a steadily increasing number of middle-income renters are now rent-burdened.

The rising cost burden findings are consistent with a recent Urban Institute report analyzing data from its Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS), which further underscores the challenges facing renters throughout the country. WBNS data reveals several trends: 20% of renters between the ages of 18 and 64 were paying partial or late rent at some point in 2025, there was a surge in the number of middle-income renters experiencing rental payment challenges, and there were higher rates of difficulty affording utility costs across renter households.

Pew Research Center found comparable results from a recent survey, including that 21% of Americans had difficulty paying their rent or mortgage and 27% reported an inability to pay all their bills each month. Although the share of households experiencing cost burdens increased more modestly between 2023 and 2024 compared to past years, Enterprise's ACS analysis highlights that the housing affordability crisis continues to worsen. Trends from this ACS analysis include:

• A national cost burden rate that is even closer to rising over 50%, with over 22.6 million cost burdened households and about 12.1 million out of those households experiencing severe cost burdens
• Rent burdens that have not fallen below pre-pandemic (2019) levels
• Continued disparities across renters by race/ethnicity and income
  

Renter Affordability by Income and Share of AMI

The cost burden disparities across renter households at different income levels persisted, with only minor increases, in comparison to 2023. The lowest income households had the highest proportion of renters who were cost burdened, as well as severely cost burdened. Despite the much lower share of cost burden among moderate-income renters, those earning 60-80% of area median income (AMI) experienced a 5% increase in cost burden rates, the highest change across income groups.

Cost Burdened Renter Households by Income as Share of AMI. Source: Enterprise tabulations of U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey.

Source: Enterprise tabulations of U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey.
While nearly 75% of extremely low-income renters - those earning less than 30% of AMI - experienced severe cost burdens, households earning 30 - 60% of AMI experienced the largest increase in severe cost burden shares, which rose from 34% to 36% in one year. This shift moved the income group's severe cost burden rate well above the national average.

Renter Affordability by Race and Ethnicity

Cost burden rates remained high across racial and ethnic groups; however, Black and Hispanic/Latino households were more likely to be cost burdened, with 57% of Black households and 54% of Hispanic/Latino households paying over 30% of their income on rent, and 32% and 29% spending more than half, respectively. In comparison, 45% of white households and 44% of Asian households had rental cost burdens, leaving an over 10 percentage point gap between these groups' burdens and those of Black households.

Cost Burdened Renters by Race/Ethnicity. Source: Enterprise tabulations of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey. Note that the white, Black, Asian, and Other/Multiracial categories exclude Hispanic/Latino renters, and Hispanic/Latino renters can be of any race.

Challenges for Low-Income Renters of Color

For higher-income renter households earning over 120% of AMI, the difference in cost burden experiences across racial and ethnic groups nearly disappears; however, analyzing combined income and racial data demonstrates that across racial/ethnic groups, households earning less than 30% of AMI were struggling with rental payments the most. This was especially true for Black renters (86%) and Hispanic/Latino renters (88%), whose cost burden shares were two to four percentage points higher than their white counterparts (84%). The combined data further reveals that among renters earning between 30% to 120% of AMI, Asian households were most likely to be cost burdened.

Share of Renters with Cost Burdens by Race and Income
Source: Enterprise tabulations of the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey. Note that the white, Black, Asian, and Other/Multiracial categories exclude Hispanic/Latino renters, and Hispanic/Latino renters can be of any race.

Experiencing rent burden has serious consequences for household financial health and stability, including making it more difficult to save (e.g., prepare for homeownership), cover emergency and unexpected expenses, or afford other non-housing necessities. We cannot escape this pattern without sufficient action from policymakers, funding from Congress, partnerships across housing advocates, and increased supply at a range of price points.

The recently enacted 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which offers solutions to long-term housing supply, preservation, and affordability challenges, is a step in the right direction. As Enterprise collaborates with our partners to implement this law, we are also continuously advocating for additional strategies to reduce household cost burden such as increasing appropriations for HUD programs; strengthening the reach and impact of rental assistance programs; expanding the housing supply through preservation; and advocating for additional legislation that increases housing affordability and access for all.