Rising rents consume a large share of incomes in major U.S. cities

According to Zillow, the median rent for a two-bedroom apartment in New York City has climbed to $4,750 each month, amounting to $57,000 a year and surpassing two-thirds of the median household income. Nationwide, the median annual rent is $21,480, and nearly half of all renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. Among households with children under 18, 54% are considered rent-burdened.

Kenny Lee, senior economist at Zillow and StreetEasy, noted that while rent growth has slowed, the proportion of cost-burdened renters has remained steady since the pandemic. A Harvard University housing study found that over 80% of renters earning under $30,000 annually are cost-burdened. The underlying cause is a shortage of roughly 4.7 million homes, a deficit stemming from two decades of underbuilding after the 2008 crisis, compounded by zoning and regulatory obstacles that delay new construction.