Georgia ranks No. 8 for ‘severe housing cost burden’

Hardship for Atlanta renters is also above average, a new report shows
1439

Yes, the rent is too damn high, according to the 2013 “Housing Landscape” report published last week by the Center for Housing Policy. The Center concluded that housing problems are getting worse for working renters, because, while incomes have gone—and stayed—down, rents have gone up —and are still going up.

That hardship is particularly acute in Georgia. According to the report, just over 25 percent of working renters in Georgia experienced “severe housing cost burdens” in 2011, meaning that more than half of their incomes went to cover housing expenses. Georgia was one of six states in which this rate increased between 2009 and 2011 (the others are Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania).

The ten states with the highest “severe housing cost burden” rates according to the report:

California,  33.8%

Florida,  32.4%

New Jersey, 31.8%

Hawaii,  30.5%

New York , 30.0%

Nevada, 28.8%

Oregon,   26.4%

Georgia,  25.5%

Rhode Island, 25.4%

Arizona,  25.1%

In metro Atlanta, rent hardship is worse than the state average, with 27 percent of working renters experiencing severe housing cost burdens in 2011. While this is down slightly from 2010, it remains considerably higher than the 2008 rate.

Housing hardship rates in metro Atlanta

2011,  27.4%

2011,  28.0%

2010,  24.3%

2009,  22.2%

Download the complete report here

Advertisement