Unaffordable Rents by Metropolitan Status

This analysis shows while the majority of the nation’s rental households are located in metropolitan areas, nearly three in ten households in non-metropolitan and indeterminate metropolitan areas rent rather than own their homes—highlighting the disparities between characteristics of populations most affected by housing affordability issues.

The Unaffordable Rents measure is an indicator of housing affordability that measures the percent of rental households that spent more than 30 percent of their household’s monthly income on rent at the state and national level. This measure is now available to be broken down by households’ metropolitan status, a significant determinate of housing affordability.