Rent costs have long weighed on lower-income households — now it’s coming for the middle class. A cost-burdened household is defined as one paying 30% or more of pretax income on rent and housing costs. This figure is widely used as a threshold for affordability: the Census Bureau measures housing costs against it, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has used it for decades. While nearly 40% of middle-class renters are burdened by costs nationwide, in Tennessee that figure is 37%, placing it among the upper half of states with the largest share of cost-burdened middle-class renters. The growing pressure on middle-class renters may finally be spurring political action.

---

Persons: ”, Peter Hepburn, ” Hepburn, “ It’s, Daniel Evans, haven’t, Evans, We’ve, Hepburn, “ Organizations: NBC, Department of Housing, Urban, Princeton University Locations: Tennessee, Memphis, Nashville, New York