Housing Unaffordability Soared to New Highs in 2024 | Joint Center for Housing Studies
- The number of cost-burdened households rose to record highs in 2024 as housing affordability remained a widespread challenge. According to Center estimates of newly released American Community Survey data, 43.5 million households were cost burdened in 2024, dedicating more than 30 percent of their income each month to housing costs (Figure 1). An additional 589,000 households were cost burdened compared to the year prior, bringing the total increase since 2019 to a staggering 6.4 million and leaving one-third (33 percent) of households with cost burdens. In another historic high, 21.6 million households, or 16 percent of all households, were severely burdened in 2024, spending more than half of their income on housing.
- To benefit households up and down the income scale, state and local governments can reform local zoning laws and encourage more cost-effective construction methods, like modular and manufactured housing. This could encourage more housing construction and a diversity of housing types to help ease the ongoing supply shortfalls that have contributed to record unaffordability.
