The supply of affordable rental housing failed to keep pace with demand in the 11 largest U.S. cities between 2006 and 2013, according to a new report from the NYU Furman Center/Capital One National Affordable Housing Landscape. The report examined rental housing affordability trends in the 11 cities and illustrates how these trends affected renters as more households chose to rent amid rising rental costs.
The cities examined include:
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Chicago
- Houston
- Philadelphia
- Dallas
- San Francisco
- Washington, DC
- Boston
- Atlanta
- Miami
Nine of these cities have seen falling vacancy rates and rising rents. With the exception of Dallas and Houston, the average renter in each metropolitan area could not afford the majority of recently available rental units in their city. The cities were even less affordable to low-income renters, who could afford no more than 11 percent of recently available units in the most affordable cities.
Since 2006, there has been an increase in the share of low- and moderate-income renters who are severely rent-burdened— meaning they face rent and utility costs equal to at least half of their income. In 2013, over a quarter of moderate-income renters were severely rent-burdened in seven of the cities in the study, while a significant majority of low-income renters in all 11 cities were severely rent-burdened. The percentage of low-income renters facing severe rent-burdens continued to rise in each of these cities and low-income renters are often most acutely impacted by the lack of affordable housing.
