Rent Burden On The Rise (1 of 3)

The world has changed and renting has changed right along with it.

Renting has long been the traditional first-step toward home ownership and, in later life, a lifestyle-simplifying option for long-term property owners intent on liberating equity.

• The latest Report by The Pew Charitable Trusts reveals that the lingering legacy of the 2007-09 Great Recession is more households making a slower transition to homeownership because they are "rent burdened."
• This research also showed that senior-headed households were more likely to be rent burdened than households headed by people in other age groups.

In the Pew Report, "American Families Face a Growing Rent Burden: High

Housing Costs Threaten Financial Security and Put Homeownership Out of Reach for Many," authors define "rent burdened" households as those spending more than 30 percent of their pretax income on housing. Such

families are usually "more financially fragile" than those spending a lower percentage of their income on rent and than those who own their own homes. "Severely rent burdened" refers to households spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent.

• Rent Burdened: The Report examined how, between 2001 and 2015, increasing rent cost affected the ability of American households to use financial services, accumulate savings, and transition to homeownership. In 2015, 38 percent of the more than 40 million U.S. renter households were rent burdened, an increase of about 19 percent from 2001.
• Severely Rent Burdened: In the same period, the share of renter households that were severely rent burdened increased by 42 percent. Escalating rent burdens were driven in part by year-over-year growth in housing costs — rent plus utilities — that far exceeded increases in pretax income. This means that after paying rent, many Americans have less money available for other core needs than similar households did 20 years ago.
• Data Source: Pew research was based on the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the longest running (since 1968) longitudinal household survey in the world. This survey of 18,000 in 5,000 American families has generated data about household finances that is free and broadly accessible.
• +55 Renters: Pew Project Director Erin Currier said she was most surprised to learn that, although the share of renter households has increased by 10 percent for all age groups, the current rental spike is propelled by renters 55 and older. In 2015, about half of senior-renter families were rent burdened with more than one-fifth severely rent burdened.