Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently published a paper tackling this very issue, titled “Subsidizing the Middle: Policies, Tradeoffs, and Costs of Addressing Middle-Income Affordability Challenges,” by researchers Alexander Hermann, Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, Nora Cahill and Peyton Whitney. 

Focusing on data from 2022, the report notes that nearly a third of all renters (14.4 million) earned 60% to 120% of area median income. Drilling down further, the report found that 80% of lower-income households were rent burdened in 2022, while 33% of middle-income households faced similar burdens.

Unsurprisingly, lower-income renters generally face steeper cost challenges than middle-income renters. In fact, middle-income renters had between $2,500 – $2,900 of leftover income, while lower-income renters had only $600 leftover. The main distinction is that while middle-income renters are impeded from long-term investments such as savings or retirement, lower-income renters face immediate choices between the costs of basic needs, such as food.

Regional breakdown

The report mapped all 50 U.S. states in four categories based on the number of cost-burdened middle-income renters in the state, from lowest to highest.

  • Less than 20% of middle-income renters in the state are cost-burdened 
  • 20% – 29% of middle-income renters are cost-burdened
  • 30% – 39% of middle-income renters are cost-burdened
  • 40% or more of middle-income renters are cost-burdened

The most divided region is the Northeast, with New England being relatively more affordable than the rest of the country. Almost every state in the region has only 20% – 29% of its middle-income renters facing cost burdens, excluding Massachusetts, where the burdens are higher than its neighbors—30% – 39% of middle-income renters in that commonwealth are cost-burdened. Looking out to the bordering Tri-State area, New York and New Jersey also fall into the 30% – 39% range. 

The states with the lowest amounts of cost-burdened renters are almost all rural Midwestern states: West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas. The primary geographic outliers are Alabama and the similarly rural/lower populated Alaska. Ohio, with a recorded population of 11.76 million, is the most densely populated of the states where fewer than 20% of middle-income renters face cost burdens.