What drives spatial variation in housing cost-burden among rural low- and moderate-income renters?

This chapter examines two aspects of increasing cost-burden among low- and moderate-income renters. They expect to see significant spatial variation in housing cost-burden given the diverse demographic make-up, economic structure and financial well-being of rural communities. Cost-burden among moderate-income renters was 37 percent for non-metro areas as a whole in 2012, but state-to-state variation ranged from 24 percent in South Dakota up to 69 percent in Hawaii. In general, there were higher proportions of cost-burdened households in metro counties than in non-metro counties, with a greater gap between low- and moderate-income households in non-metro counties. Economic and demographic drivers of housing mortgage crisis have been identified mostly along broad geographic contours, often limited to national-level statistics. Among geographic characteristics, population density uniformly increases housing demand and rent, contributing to higher cost-burden among both low- and moderate-income households.