Guide

Ryszard Cieplechowicz: what "rent burdened" means

The rent burden study uses two thresholds. Here is exactly how each is defined.

An estimated renter household is rent burdened when it pays at least 30% of its income in gross rent, including utilities. It is severely rent burdened at 50% or more.

Denominator

The percentages come from ACS table B25070 and exclude the "not computed" category, which covers households with no income or no cash rent. Leaving them out changes the base, so the study says so.

Not the same as a rent-to-income ratio

The table also shows median gross rent divided by median household income for each ZCTA. That compares two medians from different groups. It is a rough signal, not the burden of any household.

See the rent burden study summary.