Renters Spent a Record-High Share of Income on Rent This Spring By Laura Kusisto

[swag]

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/08/13/renters-spent-a-record-high-share-of-income-on-rent-this-spring/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Feconomics%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+Real+Time+Economics+Blog%29

. . .

Renters can expect to pay 30.2% of their income on rent, according to a Zillow analysis of rental and mortgage affordability in the second quarter released Thursday. That is the highest percentage ever, said Zillow, which has data going back to 1979.

The number is significant in part because it shows rental burdens creeping past 30%, which economists consider an affordable proportion of income for people to pay on rent.
Between 1995 and 2000, renters on average spent just over 24% of their incomes on rents.

“Our research found that unaffordable rents are making it hard for people to save for a down payment and retirement, and that people whose rent is unaffordable are more likely to skip out on their own health care,” said Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s chief economist.

Rental affordability worsened in 28 of the 35 metro areas covered by Zillow. It remained especially poor in the New York area and pricey West Coast cities. Los Angeles renters could expect to pay 49% of their incomes in rent. San Francisco wasn’t far behind, with renters paying 47% of their incomes on rent.

. . .

[proverbialwisdom]

1. More.

https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/april-2016-national-apartment-list-rent-report-rentonomics/

April 2016 National Apartment List Rent Report
By Leo Rosett and Andrew Woo

http://la.curbed.com/silicon-beach

http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/la-fi-casden-forecast-20160412-story.html
NOTE: County data may seriously mislead those seeking city data.

[chapdrum]

2. Hey, it's the free market.

What's the problem?

Hillary will set this right.

[Igel]

3. Actually, it's not a free market in SF and NY.

Hasn't been for a long time.

Even the data listed in poster 1's source for Houston is median, and reflects a funny kind of skew. Lots of apts. lower than the $1200 median for Houston, but there are some really trendy and expensive ones. Quite a few just above median, though.

You really need more than "average" to understand the distribution, but most people have a fuzzy understanding of the difference between mean and median, much less how to factor in standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis.