US housing, rents hit record high in 2022

Half of American renters paid more than 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities in 2022, when rents increased due to the COVID-19 epidemic, according to recently released data from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Almost 50 percent of those individuals had extra high costs, such as utilities and other household upkeep, accounting for almost 50 percent of their earnings, the report shows.

Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, the author of the report and a senior research associate at the institute, said on the findings that "We were rather shocked to see rises in every income level that we examined."

The largest increase in unaffordability since 2019 has been seen in households earning between $30,000 and $74,999 annually. A third of tenants were still troubled by costs, even if they were employed full-time, according to the study.

The percentage of cost-burdened people also increased, reaching an all-time high of 83 percent of income spent on housing.

The Harvard report states that last year saw a record high for homelessness in the United States, which home specialists attributed to price increases due to a chronic shortage of available homes.

Jeff Olivet, executive director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, said that "We simply don't have enough homes that people can afford."

"And when you combine rapidly rising rent — that it just costs more per month for people to get into a place and keep a place — you get this vicious game of musical chairs," said Olivet, according to NPR.

While the housing market has recently started to cool, it's not likely to help the already struggling Americans as prices are still higher than pre-pandemic. The building boom of high-end apartments also puts a damper on affordability.

"Over the past ten years, the majority of newly constructed apartments have cost $1,400 a month or more, and that's not affordable to the majority of renters," said Airgood-Obrycki.

She also claims that millions of low-rent apartments renting for $600 a month or less have left the market.

Furthermore, the long-term, widening inequality in what people can afford is being maintained by these developments. According to the Harvard study, while renters' median yearly income has increased by just 2 percent since 2001, median rents have increased by 21 percent.