There were 21 states, including New Hampshire, where a majority of tenant households spent 30 percent or more of their incomes on rent and utilities last year, compared with just seven states in 2019.
Nationwide, about 22 million renters are shouldering that percentage. Anyone paying more than 30 percent is considered “cost burdened,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and may struggle to pay for other necessities, such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.
Three presidential swing states had among the biggest increases in the share of renters who spent that much on housing: Arizona (to 54 percent from 46.5 percent), Nevada (to 57.4 percent from 51.1 percent), and Georgia (to 53.7 percent from 48.4 percent). New Hampshire share of renters over the 30 percent threshold went from 46.9 percent in 2019 to 51.5 percent last year. The numbers are based on a Stateline analysis of American Community Survey data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau. Florida and Maine also saw large jumps.
In Arizona, low wages, a housing shortage, and short-term rental and vacation homes are eating away at the stock of affordable housing for renters, according to Alison Cook-Davis, associate director for research at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy.
“You’ve got people across the state kind of pulling their hair out, saying ‘I thought Arizona was supposed to be the affordable state,’” Cook-Davis said.
Rents in Arizona have shot up 40 percent to 60 percent in the last two years, she said. And the state’s eviction filings spiked 43 percent to 97,000 between 2022 and 2023, she said.
In places such as Arizona and Nevada where the housing bubble of the late 2000s left vacant houses, the construction of apartments and other homes has not caught up with population increases, Cook-Davis added.
A University of Nevada, Las Vegas, data brief reported in May that the Las Vegas area had the highest percentage of cost-burdened renters in the state, at 58.3 percent, more even than the New York City metro area (52.6 percent) or San Francisco metro area (48.9 percent).
Today’s newly released census figures showed that in addition to Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, the states with the highest jumps in the share of cost-burdened renters were Florida, which increased to 61.7 percent from 55.9 percent, and Maine, at 49.1 percent from 44%.
That jump left Florida as the state with the highest rate of cost-burdened renters. It was followed by Nevada (57.4 percent), Hawaii (56.7 percent), Louisiana (56.2 percent), and California (56.1 percent).
“Florida isn’t the deal it used to be,” said Christopher McCarty, director of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “Florida still has disproportionately lower-paying jobs compared to other states, and rents are increasing compared to other states as well.”
The states with the lowest rates of cost-burdened renters as of 2023 were North Dakota (37 percent), Wyoming (41.2 percent), South Dakota (41.3 percent), Kansas (43.5 percent), and Nebraska (44 percent).
The share of cost-burdened renters increased since 2019 in every state except Vermont (down to 47.8 percent from 54 percent), Wyoming (down to 41.2 percent from 44 percent), North Dakota (down to 37 percent from 38 percent), and Rhode Island (down to 48.1 percent from 49 percent).
There’s hope for the future in Arizona and other states with increased home construction, Cook-Davis said.
“If you keep building, eventually this will sort itself out. But that could take years. It’s a slow process,” she said.
This story was originally published by Stateline, which like the New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin allows NH Business Review and other outlets to republish its reporting.
