Americans Who Can’t Afford Their Homes Up 146 Percent

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Americans Who Can’t Afford Their Homes Up 146 Percent

July 9th, 2017

Awake Goy

Over 38 million American households can’t afford their housing, an increase of 146 percent in the past 16 years, according to a recent Harvard housing report.

Under federal guidelines, households that spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs are considered “cost burdened” and will have difficulty affording basic necessities like food, clothing, transportation and medical care.

But the number of Americans struggling with their housing costs has risen from almost 16 million in 2001 to 38 million in 2015, according to the Census data crunched in the report. That’s more than double.

And despite the overall economic recovery, it’s only a small improvement from 2014, going down by about 900,000 households.

When people can’t safely afford to pay their mortgages and rent, it isn’t just a problem for those with a lower income or people who bit off more house than they can chew.