Rent Burden Rate
The share of renter households whose gross rent takes 30 percent or more of household income.
The Census Bureau defines gross rent as "the contract rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities (electricity, gas, and water and sewer) and fuels (oil, coal, kerosene, wood, etc.) if these are paid by the renter (or paid for the renter by someone else)" (ACS Subject Definitions).
The 30 percent threshold is the federal standard. HUD considers households paying more than 30 percent of income for housing to be cost burdened, and those paying more than 50 percent to be severely cost burdened (HUD USER). The threshold has been the national benchmark since 1981.
Rent burden describes affordability as renters encounter it. Rent alone does not: a high rent in a high-income area may be comfortably affordable, while a modest rent in a low-income area may not be.
Metrics in this family#
Rent-burden rate
The current share of renter households at or above the threshold, taken from the most recent ACS 5-year vintage.
Rent-burden trend
Change in that share over 3, 5, or 10 years, selectable in the tool.
Because rent burden is itself a rate, its trend is reported as a change in percentage points rather than as a percentage change. Percentage-point changes remain comparable between places at different starting levels; percentage changes of a percentage do not.
Considerations#
ACS 5-year windows overlap. Each vintage shares four of its five years with the vintage before it, so year-over-year movement reflects smoothed rolling estimates rather than independent annual readings. Short-window trends are damped, and turning points appear later than they occurred.
Census tract boundaries were redrawn for the 2020 census. Estimates published on earlier boundaries are carried onto current ones before use — see geography.
The measure covers renter households only. In tracts with few renter households the estimate rests on a small sample and carries a wide margin of error.
References#
- 1ACS Subject Definitionshttps://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2016_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf
- 2HUD USERhttps://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-featd-article-081417.html