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When it comes time to pay the rent, how much of your paycheck would you be willing to fork over?
Nationwide, the typical renter spent 31% of their total income on rent last year, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It means that roughly half of renters in the country are spending more than 30% of their income on rent, the threshold of what is typically considered affordable.
The housing burden for renters, which was basically unchanged from 2022, also remained higher than for homeowners, who typically spent 21.1% of their income on housing if they had a mortgage, and just 11.5% if they had no mortgage.
“Housing costs rose between 2022 and 2023 for both homeowners and renters. The median cost of housing for renters rose from $1,354 to $1,406 (after adjusting for inflation),” said Molly Ross, a survey statistician with the U.S. Census Bureau.
Cities with the highest rent burdens
Due to local variations in incomes and rents, rent burden varies dramatically from city to city, according to the Realtor.com analysis of the data from the 2023 American Community Survey.
Leading the nation is Key West, FL, where the median rent burden is a whopping 42.2%. The southernmost city in the contiguous U.S., Key West is a popular vacation destination also famous as the former home of author Ernest Hemingway.
Key West is followed by two other popular vacation spots: Clearlake, CA, where the typical rent burden is 41.8%, and Laconia, NH, where it clocks in at 40.9%. Both cities are relatively small, with populations under 20,000, and located on lake shores that make them popular spots for summer vacations and second homes.
Florida dominates among the 10 most rent-burdened cities, accounting for half of the list. In addition to Key West, Port St. Lucie, Gainesville, Sebring, and Miami all make the top 10, with median rent burdens exceeding 38% in each town.
Miami, which has a metro population of more than 6 million, is also notable as the only major city to rank in the top 10 for the highest rent burden. Although big cities such as San Francisco and New York City are infamous for high housing costs, the high median incomes of renters in those areas mean that their rent burdens fall fairly close to the national average.
The remaining cities in the top 10 for rent burden are all relatively small, including Corvallis, OR, Danville, IL, and Monroe, LA.
Cities with the lowest rent burdens
At the other end of the spectrum, Wooster, OH, has the lowest rent burden of any U.S. statistical area, at 20.7%. The city of about 27,000 is located roughly 50 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Other cities in the Midwest make up the majority of the 10 least rent-burdened cities in the country. In Wisconsin, Marinette, Sheboygan, Wausau, and Beaver Dam all make the list, with rent burdens below 24%.
Warsaw, IN, also makes the cut from the Midwest, along with Jefferson City, MO.
In the West, Gallup, NM, and Heber, UT, have the distinction of low rent burdens. The South and Northeast are represented in the top 10 by one entry each: Albemarle, NC, and Somerset, PA.