How renter cost burden changes across local income bands
How sharply does moderate and severe housing cost burden differ between renter households at different HUD income levels?
A county-wide burden rate can hide who is absorbing the pressure. HUD CHAS keeps five HAMFI income bands separate, letting the same cost-burden thresholds be compared without substituting asking rent or median household income for renter household counts.
- Direct county universe
- 3,144 50 states and DC; no county aggregation
- Stable five-band profiles
- 2,798 all shares bounded; low-income base at least 100
- Median burden · ≤30% HAMFI
- 70.4% moderate plus severe housing cost burden
- Median burden · >100% HAMFI
- 1.0% same threshold, different local income band
A county-wide average hides who is carrying the housing-cost pressure
HUD publishes direct renter counts for 3,144 counties in the current 50-state and DC universe. Requiring a low-income base of at least 100 published households and valid moderate, severe and combined shares in all five bands leaves 2,798county profiles. The median combined burden share falls from 70.4% among renters at or below 30% of HAMFI to 1.0% above 100% of HAMFI.
Ouray County, CO leads the published ordering with a 100.0% severe-burden share among renters at or below 30% of HAMFI. The same row contains 130 published renter households in that income band, so the percentage remains tied to its actual denominator.
HAMFI is a local HUD income benchmark. It is not county median household income, renter earnings or a live asking-rent series.
The source period is the 2018–2022 ACS five-year estimate. HUD rounds small and large published cells for disclosure protection, which is why the pipeline rejects a band when independently rounded parts cannot support a bounded rate. Use the interactive explorer to search the complete included set, compare income profiles and keep both household counts and shares visible.
The burden profile changes sharply across local income bands
Each row shows the unweighted county median, keeping moderate and severe burden separate.
The first 24 rows, with a path to the underlying market
| Rank | County | Low-income renter base | Moderate burden | Severe burden | Combined burden | Above-100% burden | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouray County, COHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 130 | 0.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 1.5% | Compare bands |
| 2 | Manassas Park city, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 355 | 1.1% | 98.6% | 99.7% | 5.8% | Compare bands |
| 3 | Falls Church city, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 250 | 4.0% | 92.0% | 96.0% | 7.0% | Compare bands |
| 4 | Pulaski County, GAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 225 | 0.0% | 91.1% | 91.1% | 13.0% | Compare bands |
| 5 | Kendall County, TXHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 720 | 2.1% | 91.0% | 93.1% | 2.6% | Compare bands |
| 6 | Power County, IDHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 110 | 9.1% | 90.9% | 100.0% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 7 | Kerr County, TXHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 890 | 6.2% | 90.4% | 96.6% | 2.7% | Compare bands |
| 8 | Clarke County, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 340 | 4.4% | 89.7% | 94.1% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 9 | Dare County, NCHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 460 | 0.9% | 89.1% | 90.0% | 9.8% | Compare bands |
| 10 | Terry County, TXHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 410 | 6.1% | 89.0% | 95.1% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 11 | Jenkins County, GAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 175 | 0.0% | 88.6% | 88.6% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 12 | Gunnison County, COHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 435 | 8.0% | 88.5% | 96.6% | 4.3% | Compare bands |
| 13 | Prince George County, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 510 | 2.0% | 88.2% | 90.2% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 14 | Martinsville city, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 805 | 4.3% | 88.2% | 92.5% | 2.3% | Compare bands |
| 15 | Andrews County, TXHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 165 | 0.0% | 87.9% | 87.9% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 16 | Beaverhead County, MTHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 410 | 8.5% | 87.8% | 96.3% | 12.2% | Compare bands |
| 17 | Jones County, GAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 485 | 0.0% | 86.6% | 86.6% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 18 | Curry County, NMHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 1,490 | 5.4% | 86.6% | 91.9% | 6.7% | Compare bands |
| 19 | Dawes County, NEHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 280 | 12.5% | 85.7% | 98.2% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 20 | Trousdale County, TNHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 140 | 7.1% | 85.7% | 92.9% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 21 | Lake County, COHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 135 | 0.0% | 85.2% | 85.2% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 22 | Essex County, VAHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 370 | 10.8% | 85.1% | 95.9% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 23 | Gilpin County, COHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 235 | 6.4% | 85.1% | 91.5% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
| 24 | Tillman County, OKHUD CHAS 2018-2022 | 165 | 12.1% | 84.8% | 97.0% | 0.0% | Compare bands |
The visible table is intentionally limited for reading. The CSV contains every row that passes the printed inclusion rule.
Inclusion first, interpretation second.
Start with every direct 2018-2022 CHAS summary-level 050 county row in the current 50-state/DC FIPS universe. Publish a study row when the at-or-below-30%-HAMFI renter subtotal contains at least 100 published households and all five income bands support bounded moderate, severe and combined burden shares.
Methodology version: v10Method
- Moderate burden is the published count spending more than 30% through 50% of household income on housing; severe burden is the published count spending more than 50%.
- Each share divides a published burden count, or the sum of moderate and severe counts, by HUD's independently published renter subtotal for the same HAMFI band.
- Rows are ordered by the severe-burden share among renters at or below 30% of HAMFI. No score, rent forecast or county aggregation enters the ranking.
Counter-signals
- A high share can coexist with a modest household count; the published income-band base remains visible beside every percentage.
- HAMFI is HUD Area Median Family Income and differs from county median household income, renter income and individual earnings.
- Current asking rent can change after the five-year CHAS estimate window without changing this historical needs tabulation.
Limitations
- CHAS is based on 2018-2022 ACS five-year responses and was released in December 2025; it is not a live market-rent feed.
- HUD disclosure rounding keeps 0 as 0, publishes 1-7 households as 4 and rounds values of 8 or more to the nearest 5, so independently published subtotals can differ slightly from the sum of their parts.
- County averages can conceal city, neighborhood, bedroom-count and household-type differences, and the study does not infer missing detail from another geography.
Every input release used by this study
Release and retrieval dates stay visible so a reader can tell whether two measures describe the same moment.