Sep. 13—Over 48% of Maryland renters are paying above 30% of their income to housing costs, a trend reflective of the rest of the country, according to American Community Survey 1-year estimates released Thursday.
Around one-fourth of Maryland renters are paying over half of their income in rental costs, a severe cost burden.
Statewide, around 32% of households are renter-occupied while nearly 68% are owner-occupied, according to the estimates. Around a quarter of homeowners with mortgages were paying over 30% of their income on housing costs, and for those without mortgages, it was 13.4%.
The 2023 data released Thursday from the annual American Community Survey includes social, economic, housing and demographic characteristics based on population estimates. The survey is conducted annually
While Maryland’s housing data reflects patterns seen across the United States, it’s a challenging trend for families, said Michael Bader, an associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University and director of the school’s 21st Century Cities Initiative.
Rising housing costs have a broader impact on the greater Baltimore region’s economy, Bader said. Families paying more for housing have less money to spend on other things like food or transportation, and those with fixed incomes feel that squeeze even more acutely, he said.
A greater housing expense-to-income ratio can also make it more difficult to attract workers, Bader said.
“If they’re not able to afford the rent, people may look to move places where the rent is cheaper,” he said. “The housing situation might exacerbate that.”
Earlier this year, estimates showed Maryland’s population was the highest it’s been in four years in 2023, but population declines were still occurring in Baltimore County and Baltimore City — a trend seen in the city at least for more than a decade.
Bader said Maryland’s population has stayed constant in spite of losing native-born residents thanks to immigrants moving to the state. Baltimore City, however, has struggled to attract as much of that population as other metropolitan areas. Bader pointed to a lack of dominant industry in the city as well as a regional disadvantage. Other nearby cities are drawing from the same pool of potential residents, he said.
The thresholds for measuring the cost burden of housing come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Housing rental costs are defined as “rent plus the average monthly cost of utilities and fuels adjusted for inflation,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Maryland jurisdictions with the four highest shares of renters considered cost-burdened are all within the Baltimore region: Carroll, Baltimore City, Harford and Baltimore County. The estimates did not include eight Maryland jurisdictions that have a population of less than 65,000. Baltimore City has the highest share of renters in the state with over 52% of households falling into that category.
Baltimore City also had the smallest amount of change between 2022 and 2023 for median rental costs, only increasing by less than a percentage point. Calvert, Harford and Cecil all had declines in median rental costs from 2022 to 2023.
The largest rental cost increase occurred in Carroll County, which saw about a 21.7% increase in its median rental costs. Anne Arundel County, which had the second-highest median rental costs in 2023 of $1,998, also saw a jump of nearly 11%.
National data showed the cost of rent and utilities rose faster than home values in 2023, a pattern seen for the first time in 10 years. The median gross cost of renting — rent plus the cost of utilities and fuel — grew by 3.8%, while median home values grew by just 1.8%, the survey showed.
For comparison, rent costs increased by less than 3% nationally from 2011 to 2019, according to survey data. In 2022, rental costs grew by 1%.
Renter households where the householder is just Black or Hispanic, as opposed to two or more races, had higher shares of cost-burdened renters than the rest of the state. Hispanic renters had the highest share of the three groups at 54% spending more than 30% of their income on rental costs.
Originally Published:September 12, 2024 at 5:42 p.m.
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 05:12:00
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