Almost 7 million U.S. households were severely housing cost-burdened, spending more than 50 percent of their income on housing, in 2016, per Census data.
The coastal states of Florida, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and California are home to the most cost-burdened cities, according to SmartAsset's ranking. More than 26 percent of Newark households are severely cost-burdened, putting the city at the top of the list, while Florida had the most cities (four) in the top 10. Newark and Miami ranked one and two as the most cost-burdened cities, respectively, for the second year in a row.
Spending over 50 percent of your income on housing is a rare phenomenon for homeowners in Cary, N.C. According to our estimates, only 5 percent of homeowners here are severely housing cost-burdened. In fact Cary homeowners have done a such good job finding affordable housing that less than 15 percent of homeowners spend over 30 percent of their income on housing. With so little money dedicated to housing, Cary residents are some of the most financially flexible in the nation.