More than 18 million Americans are living in homes that stretch their budgets far beyond what's considered financially healthy. That's the biggest takeaway from a LendingTree study released this week that found that 18.3 million homeowners are what the housing industry calls cost-burdened, or 'house poor.' That refers to homeowners who pay more than 30% of their monthly income on housing, including the mortgage, utilities and other costs.
But for many Americans, keeping housing costs at a manageable level is difficult, particularly in an economy where inflation is still high, home prices have reached record highs and mortgage rates are hovering around 7%. The median U.S. home price hit an all-time high this month of $394,000, up 4.4% from a year ago, according to Redfin. LendingTree based its study on 2022 U.S. Census data on how much owner-occupied households spent on housing.