Quality of Life—Housing

• Indicator: Percent of households with housing cost burden over 30% of yearly income
• Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates Detailed Tables B25070 and B25091
• Years included: 2010-2019

The long-time standard measure for housing affordability is that households should spend no more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The rationale is that, “if housing accounts for too large a share of income there will not be enough left over for these other necessities.” Despite a changing housing market and economic stratification that allows some families to choose to exceed this 30% guideline without sacrificing the ability to meet other expenses, for those on the lower end of the income scale, the 30% rule is still salient and yields similar results as other, more complex methods of estimating housing cost burdens. The Committee chose to follow this guideline to determine whether and where Marylanders’ quality of life may be affected by a lack of affordable housing.

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