JCHS’s 2026 State of the Nation’s Housing Report Finds Cost Burdens for Renters Continue to Rise Amid Cooling Demand and Housing Market Uncertainty

By Raquel Harati, NLIHC Research Analyst 

The Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University released its annual The State of the Nation’s Housing report on June 17. The report highlights a national landscape of increasing affordability challenges, weakening job markets, and growing economic uncertainty amidst rising housing cost burdens for both renters and homeowners, despite vacancies rising and housing demand weakening. The authors highlight that federal housing assistance remains deeply inadequate in comparison to the needs of low-income households across the U.S., who are simultaneously facing a shrinking supply of lower-cost homes. Existing federal inadequacies paired with recent policy changes by the Trump administration to further scale back funding run the risk of deepening existing inequities and furthering housing instability for millions of households across the country. The report recognizes different innovative tools being utilized at the state and local levels to expand housing supply and assist low-income households, but without coordinated policy solutions and funding support from the federal government, attempts to alleviate these severe housing challenges will remain patchwork at best.  

Numerous topics are explored in the report that impact the housing market, including unaffordable rents while homeownership remains inaccessible for many, slowing housing construction amidst decreasing household growth, and more frequent climate risks raising insurance costs for both single family and multifamily homes. The authors found that a record-high 22.7 million renter households (or 49%) were cost-burdened in 2024, meaning these households spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The growth in the number of cost-burdened renters appears to be driven by rising rents and a shrinking supply of low-cost rental units. The report shares that the number of units in the U.S. renting for under $1,000 per month fell by 30% between 2014 and 2024, from 8.3 million to 5.8 million. Meanwhile, the number of units renting for $1,000 or more per month increased by 46%; the number of luxury units, or those renting for more than $2,000 per month, doubled. Although rents nationwide decreased by 0.5% on an annual basis in the first quarter of 2026, the authors note that they are still considerably elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. For example, average asking rents for professionally managed apartments were found to be 29% higher in the first quarter of 2026 than they were in 2020. Furthermore, recent declining rents were not evenly distributed across geographies—while most rental markets in the South and West saw decreases likely tied to substantial new construction of housing units in recent years, rents increased in the majority of rental markets in the Midwest and Northeast.  

The authors found evidence of slowing housing demand in recent years, reflecting economic uncertainty and making it unlikely to ease affordability challenges for many low-income renters. Household growth, as measured by the number of new households formed, slowed for a third consecutive year, falling by 16% in 2025 from 2024. This slowdown reflects the reality of many young adults being unable to afford to rent on their own, leading many to live with roommates or family members. Severely restrictive immigration policies and increased deportations also impacted housing demand and new household formation, with immigration to the U.S. plummeting by approximately 50% in 2025. Housing demand is also expected to be affected by the growing number of older adults moving out of their homes to live with family or in managed care facilities. 

Changes in household formation and housing demand were accompanied by slowing construction. Across the country, total new housing construction declined by 1%, due in part to slowing demand and high construction prices from materials and labor shortages. However, by analyzing the markets separately, the authors found that new single-family home construction fell by 7%, while new multifamily home construction increased slightly in 2025 but remained below the peak of construction in 2022. Even within the single-family market, differences appeared with the build-to-rent single-family market making up 11% of the total new single-family homes in 2025, almost three times the historical average showcasing growing demand within this area.   

The report emphasizes that the increasing frequency and cost of climate-related disasters puts existing housing units at greater risk of being damaged or destroyed. Utilizing FEMA’s National Risk Index, the authors found that 72 million homes across the country face at least a moderate risk of being lost due to a climate-related disaster. These risks are contributing to rising insurance costs for single-family and multi-family homes alike, especially in disaster-prone states like Texas and Florida. Average monthly home insurance premiums have risen 72% between 2019 and 2025 as disasters increased—costs that are often passed on to renter households through rent increases and sometimes make it difficult for landlords to afford the costs of maintaining and operating their properties.  

The report concludes that expanding federal rental assistance, supporting state and local initiatives, and climate mitigation efforts are all concrete steps to solving the housing crisis, but that no single option will solve it alone—a coordinated approach at all levels of government and across multiple sectors is essential. The authors reference the recently passed bipartisan “21st Century ROAD Act,” which includes priorities endorsed and long advocated for by NLIHC, as evidence of growing recognition from federal legislators of the housing issues being faced across the nation and a meaningful step toward making affordable, accessible housing a reality for more renter households.  

The full report and accompanying data can be found here.