Rentals in America at all time high
US Rental Rates Hit All-Time High
12.1 Million US households have housing costs that consume more than 50% of their income
A Harvard University research brief titled, “Deteriorating Rental Affordability: An Update on America’s Rental Housing 2024,” co-authored by three JCHS researchers and published December 16, updates the center’s previously published “America’s Rental Housing 2024” report ;
"Though rent growth has recently slowed substantially, the extended period of rising rents during the pandemic propelled cost burdens to new heights. At last measure in 2022, a record-high 22.4 million renter households spent more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities. This is an increase of 2 million households over three years and entirely offsets the modest improvements in cost-burden rates recorded between 2014 and 2019 (Figure 3).
Among cost-burdened households, 12.1 million had housing costs that consumed more than half of their income, an all-time high for severe burdens.
Renting as a financial trap vs path to ownership
Renting has been a stepping stone toward home ownership. However, current economic challenges show a dramatic increase in homelessness or what the report calls "unhoused" families:
Options to buy an affordable home
How to find affordable homes? In the past 4 years I've explored the positive options of manufactured homes in PA. Once stigmatized by "trailer trash" stereotypes, manufactured homes in land lease communities have become a hot topic as a positive solution to the US housing crisis. Visiting the Eagle River factory in Central PA really showed me the quality of off-site manufactured home construction.
- HUD Reveals 87 Changes for Manufactured Homes - increasing inventory and options such as multi-unit housing
On a personal note, my partner and I renovate and rebuild manufactured homes to create affordable, quality home ownership opportunities - one family at a time.
Read more:
- "Rentification" of America - the American dream killed by Wall Street
- Affordable Living Options in Central PA
If you are exploring home ownership options and tired of paying someone else's mortgage, let's talk! You can own a quality home in a land-lease community for less than 1/2 a bitcoin! Or finance your purchase with only 10% down.
Susanna Kunkel, Realtor
ABC Realty, LLC
484-416--0567
