The cost of housing in Greater Boston has become such an urgent issue for policy makers because it impacts nearly everyone who lives here. With the median price of a single-family home topping $865,000, even people making middle-class incomes often struggle to afford a house.
But as housing prices continue to soar, the burden is falling especially heavily on renters, according to new figures out this month.
Far more renters than owners in this region were “cost-burdened,” as measured by spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing, between 2019 and 2023, according to a new Census data snapshot from that time period as part of the American Community Survey. In fact, renters spent a higher share of their income on housing than homeowners did in all but 10 of the 182 communities in Greater Boston with more than 1,000 households.
