Trying to find a cheap apartment? Good luck.
Rental affordability hit a record low, with even middle-income tenants taking a large hit to their finances in 2022, according to a recent report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
Half of all tenants were classified as “cost-burdened,” which means they’re paying more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. The percentage of cost-burdened middle-income renters (earning $45,000 to $74,999 a year) rose 5.4 percentage points from 2019 through 2022.
“Over the last two decades, housing unaffordability has been climbing the income ladder and is increasingly affecting middle-income households,” says Sophia Wedeen, a research analyst at the center. “For people with lower incomes, housing unaffordability is a fact of life.”