Millions of Americans are Financially Burdened by Housing Costs

Even before the current financial fiasco hit, millions of Americans had gotten themselves into situations where they are incredibly house poor:

About 19 million Americans now fit the government’s definition of “financially burdened” because they spend at least 30 percent of their incomes on housing, according to an Associated Press analysis of 2007 data released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this week. That’s about 38 percent of the nation’s population of homeowners. Of those, about 7.5 million Americans, or 15 percent of American homeowners, spend more than half of their incomes on housing.

In the top metropolitan areas, more than 20% of residents face housing costs that take up more than 50% of their incomes, the AP reported.

All but one of the top 13 markets are in California or Florida. The other one is Las Vegas, where 50% of residents spend at least 30% of their incomes on housing.

This is among the reasons why I've been a long-time advocate of renting.