the.com/rent burden
when the roof over your head eats more than a third of your paycheck before you've eaten anything else.
means a household is rent burdened when it spends more than 30 percent of gross income on rent, and severely burdened past 50 percent.
from the 30 percent threshold traces to the 1969 Brooke Amendment to US housing law, which capped public housing rent at a quarter of income, later raised to 30 percent in 1981 and adopted as the default yardstick everywhere.
national sharenearly half of US renters cross the 30 percent line
severe casesabout a quarter of renters pay over half income
threshold is arbitrary30 percent chosen for politics, not economics
for instance
los angeles renters — over half spend 30 percent plus, among worst in US
new york city — median renter burden hovers near 34 percent of income
hong kong housing — among priciest globally, burden often exceeds 40 percent