A new brief from the United States Census Bureau looks at four measures of rental market conditions in metropolitan areas using data from the American Community Survey (ACS). A follow-up on Rental Housing Market Condition Measures: 2009, the new report shows changes in housing costs, housing cost burdens, rental vacancy rates, and the renter share of total households from 2009 to 2011.
According to the brief, the national median gross rent was $871 in 2011, down from $880 in 2009. Only 80 of the 366 metro areas experienced a statistically significant change in median gross rent between 2009 and 2011, with 23 areas seeing an increase and 57 areas experiencing a decrease. Among the 50 most populous metropolitan areas, all experienced a decrease in median gross rent from 2009 to 2011, except for the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metro Area and the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area, which saw increases of $26 and $15, respectively. Median gross rents ranged from $502 in the Wheeling, WV-OH metro area to $1,460 in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro area.
Despite a slight overall decrease in median gross rent between 2009 and 2011, the report finds that there was an increase in the percentage of renter households experiencing a housing cost burden from 2009 to 2011. In this report, a household has a housing cost burden if it spends 35% or more of income on housing costs. Forty-four percent of all renter households had a housing cost burden in 2011, an increase of 1.8 percentage points from 2009.
Though most (58%) of the 366 metro areas had no statistical difference from the 2011 national rate, some of the heaviest burdens occurred in Florida, California, and Louisiana. More than half of all renter households were burdened in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL, Riverside-San Bernadino-Ontario, CA and New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA.
Authors note that a trend in steady or increasing incomes and declining median gross rents might have suggested a decreasing percentage of burdened renters. However, of the 50 most populous metro areas, only Richmond, VA and Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY became more affordable to renters between 2009 and 2011.
The report also discusses rental vacancy rates and the share of total households that are renters. The national rental vacancy rate went from 8.4% in 2009 to 8.2% in 2010 and to 7.4% in 2011. This steadily decreasing rate suggests a tightening rental market. The decline in rental vacancy rates was especially pronounced in the 50 most populous metro areas. Finally, the renter share of occupied housing increased from 34.1% in 2009 to 35.4% in 2011.
Access the full research brief at http://1.usa.gov/17O6shy (PDF).