Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Map 1: Rate of housing cost burden among renter households, 2017

Map 1 illustrates the variation in the rate of housing cost burden among renter households across the 384 metropolitan statistical areas in the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii in the year 2017. The legend for the map shows that the rate of housing cost burden among renter households ranged from a low of 32.8 percent to a high of 60.0 percent. The map uses a color scheme that begins with light yellow colors for lower rates of housing cost burden, progressing through progressively darker shades of orange and red, and ultimately ending with dark red for the areas with the highest rates of housing cost burden. The areas with the deepest shades of red are concentrated in Southern California, the San Francisco Metropolitan Statistical Area, the middle to southern coastline of Oregon, Florida from the the southern tip up along the Eastern coastline, as well as Southern New Jersey. Lighter shades of red that represent still high rates of housing cost burden also cover the New York City Metropolitan Statistical Area, all of New Jersey, New Orleans, and North-Central Colorado. Overall, the West and East coasts are darker shades, while much of the Midwest, Great Plains, and Appalachian regions are lighter shades.

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Map 2: Change in rates of renter housing cost burden, 2009 – 2017

Map 2 illustrates the variation in the change in the rate of housing cost burden among renter households across the 384 metropolitan statistical areas in the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii between the year 2009 and the year 2017. The legend for the map shows that the change in the rate of housing cost burden among renter households ranged from a low of negative 8.7 percent to a high of positive 14.8 percent. The map uses a color scheme that begins with darker shades of blue for metropolitan statistical areas whose rate of housing cost burden declined, a light bluish-gray for areas that had small declines, through light tan for areas with small increases, progessing through increasingly dark shades of orange and red, and ending with a dark red for areas with the largest increases in the rate of housing cost burden. The areas with the deepest shades of red include Western Colorado, Southeastern Wyoming, Central Montana, South-central Idaho, Northeastern Texas along the border with Louisiana, Southeastern Louisiana along the border with Mississippi, Central Florida, and Central South Carolina. The areas with the darkest shades of blue include parts of South and Central Michigan, Central Illinois, the South-central coastline of California, and parts of Southwestern Virginia. Overall, much of the East Coast, the coast along the Gulf of Mexico, and the West Coast is some varying shade of tan or orange, indicating some degree of increase in rates of housing cost burden, with pockets of blue where there were decreases in rates of cost burden. Much of the Midwest, Great Plains, and Appalachian regions are some shade of blue, indicating some degree of decrease in rates of housing cost burden, with pockets of tan or orange where there were increases in rates of cost burden.

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Map 3: Rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households, 2017

Map 3 illustrates the variation in the rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households across the 384 metropolitan statistical areas in the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii in the year 2017. The legend for the map shows that the rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households ranged from a low of 12.8 percent to a high of 40.1 percent. The map uses a color scheme that begins with light yellow colors for lower rates of housing cost burden, progressing through progressively darker shades of orange and red, and ultimately ending with dark red for the areas with the highest rates of housing cost burden. The areas with the deepest shades of red are concentrated in Southern California and along the California coastline, as well as in and around the New York City Metropolitan Statistical area, along the New Jersey coastline and Southeast Florida. Darker shades of orange that represent still high rates of housing cost burden also cover the Western coastline in Oregon and Washington State, along the East Coast throughout Massachussetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as covering the Chicago area. Overall, the Midwest, Great Plains, and Appalachian regions are primarily lighter shades of orange or yellow, indicating lower rates of housing cost burden.

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Map 4: Change in rates of homeowner housing cost burden, 2009 – 2017

Map 4 illustrates the variation in the change in the rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households across the 384 metropolitan statistical areas in the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii between the year 2009 and the year 2017. The legend for the map shows that the change in the rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households ranged from a low of negative 15.6 percent to a high of positive 1.1 percent. The map uses a color scheme that begins with darker shades of blue for metropolitan statistical areas whose rate of housing cost burden declined, a light bluish-gray for areas that had small declines, through light tan for areas with small increases. The darkest shades of blue are found in the North-central region of California around the Sacramento and San Frncisco Metropolitan Statistical Areas, in Southern Nevada around Las Vegas and Northwestern Nevada around Reno, in Eastern Minnesota, as well as in Southern Florida. Almost all of the map is covered in some shade of blue, indicating that nearly all Metropolitan Statistical Areas observed a decline in rates of housing cost burden among homeowners over this period. Only three Metropolitan Statistical Areas are colored some shade of tan indicating that they had increases over this period, including Wichita Falls, Texas, Casper, Wyoming, and Manhattan, Kansas.

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Figure 1: Dispersion of renter housing cost burden rates by household income across MSAs, 2017

Figure 1 is a box-and-whisker chart that illustrates the variation across Metropolitan Statistical areas in the rate of housing cost burden among renter households in different ranges of annual household income for the year 2017. The chart includes five data series that each represent a different range of household incomes. The five ranges of annual household income included in the chart, from left to right, include Less than $20,000, $20,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $74,999, $75,000 to $99,999, and $100,000 or more. For each data series, the chart includes; a box that represents the values falling within the 25th and 75th percentile; a line within the box representing the median value; an “X” within the box representing the mean value; and lines extending out from the top and bottom of the box indicating the largest value within a distance of 1.5 times the interquartile range, or the maximum and minimum values, whichever is smaller.

For households with annual household income of Less than $20,000 the lowest value was 62.1 percent and the highest value was 86.5 percent. For households with annual household income between $20,000 and $49,999 the lowest value was 23.4 percent and the highest value was 86.9 percent. For households with annual household income between $50,000 and $74,999 the lowest value was 0.0 percent and the highest value was 64.2 percent. For households with annual household income between $75,000 and $99,999 the lowest value was 0.0 percent and the highest value was 37.7 percent. For households with annual household income of $100,000 or more the lowest value was 0.0 percent and the highest value was 14.9 percent.

The boxes are thin and the lines are short for the data series on households with annual household incomes Less than $20,000, between $75,000 and $99,999, and $100,000 or more, indicating that there is not much dispersion in rates of housing cost burden among renter households with annual household incomes in these ranges across different Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The box is thick and the lines are long for the data series on households with annual household incomes between $20,000 and $49,999, indicating that there is a great deal of variation in rates of housing cost burden among renter households with annual household incomes in this range across different Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The box and lines for the data series on households with annual household incomes between $50,000 and $74,999 are thinner and shorter than those for households with annual household incomes between $20,000 and $49,999, but larger than those for households with annual household incomes of more than $75,000 or Less than $20,000. There are numerous individual dots above the lines extending from the top of the boxes for the data series on households earning between $50,000 and $74,999, between $75,000 and $99,999, and $100,000 or more, indicating that there are many outlier Metropolitan Statistical Areas for these ranges of annual household income.

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Figure 2: Dispersion of homeowner housing cost burden rates by household income across MSAs, 2017

Figure 2 is a box-and-whisker chart that illustrates the variation across Metropolitan Statistical areas in the rate of housing cost burden among homeowner households in different ranges of annual household income for the year 2017. The chart includes five data series that each represent a different range of household incomes. The five ranges of annual household income included in the chart, from left to right, include Less than $20,000, $20,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $74,999, $75,000 to $99,999, and $100,000 or more. For each data series, the chart includes; a box that represents the values falling within the 25th and 75th percentile; a line within the box representing the median value; an “X” within the box representing the mean value; and lines extending out from the top and bottom of the box indicating the largest value within a distance of 1.5 times the interquartile range, or the maximum and minimum values, whichever is smaller.

For households with annual household income of Less than $20,000 the lowest value was 42.7 percent and the highest value was 90.8 percent. For households with annual household income between $20,000 and $49,999 the lowest value was 15.5 percent and the highest value was 77.4 percent. For households with annual household income between $50,000 and $74,999 the lowest value was 3.3 percent and the highest value was 54.8 percent. For households with annual household income between $75,000 and $99,999 the lowest value was 0.2 percent and the highest value was 42.4 percent. For households with annual household income of $100,000 or more the lowest value was 0.0 percent and the highest value was 16.3 percent.

The boxes are thin and the lines are short for the data series on households with annual household incomes between $75,000 and $99,999, and $100,000 or more, indicating that there is not much dispersion in rates of housing cost burden among renter households with annual household incomes in these ranges across different Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The box is thick and the lines are long for the data series on households with annual household incomes of Less than $20,000, between $20,000 and $49,999, and between $50,000 and $74,999, indicating that there is a great deal of variation in rates of housing cost burden among homeowner households with annual household incomes in these ranges across different Metropolitan Statistical Areas. There are numerous individual dots above the lines extending from the top of the boxes for the data series on households earning between $50,000 and $74,999, between $75,000 and $99,999, and $100,000 or more, indicating that there are many outlier Metropolitan Statistical Areas for these ranges of annual household income. There are a few dots above the lines extending from the top of the boxes for the data series on households earning between $20,000 and $49,999, indicating that there are a few outlier Metropolitan Statistical Areas for this range of annual household income.

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