In the good old days, a family spent about 25% of their income on housing. But then sellers went crazy and buyers went even crazier and landlords went crazy and renters got screwed. In the mania of Keeping up with the Jones, everyone else had to buy a house too, and NOW. A few stretches of the income here and there, and suddenly all of your money is being poured into that tract house that is strikingly similar to your neighbor’s. All across California, people are spending a lot of their money just to put a roof over their heads, and in a shocking change of events, they're spending more on housing they they were on that BMW they couldn't afford either. Especially in our fair Southern California, many (if not the majority) of households are spending in excess of 30% of their incomes on housing. In Temecula and Hemet (we’ll pretend we know where that is for argument’s sake), 74% and 73% of renters, respectively, are spending more than 30% on rent. The amount that people are spending on housing increased most drastically from 2000-2005. In the unincorporated area of southeast L.A. County, Florence-Graham (again, pretending), the number of renters paying more than 30% has risen from 17% to 43% in just 5 years. In El Monte, 73% of mortgage holders are paying 30% or more. Of course, if you’re rich it doesn’t really matter if you spend more than 30% of your income on housing.
· Across Nation, Housing Costs Rise as Burden [NY Times]
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