Despite softening of year-over-year rents for new leases, the nation’s rental housing market remains unaffordable for many across the income spectrum, according to “America’s Rental Housing 2026” report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
The pandemic saw record rent increases, which then hovered near 0% from mid-2023 to 2025. By 2025’s fourth quarter, asking rents for professionally managed apartments dropped 0.6% year over year. Many large markets saw small declines or just modest growth.
“Headline numbers showing flat or falling rents can be misleading,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “For millions of renters, especially those with lower and moderate incomes, housing is deeply unaffordable. Years of rent increases and the loss of lower-cost units have left many households with no cushion and very few options.”
Affordability challenges aren’t just limited to the nation’s lowest-income households, noted senior research associate Whitney Airgood-Obrycki.
The report finds the number of cost-burdened renters has reached a new all-time high. In 2024, 22.7 million renter households, or 49% of all renters, spent over 30% of their income on rent and utilities. Of these households, approximately 12.1 million were severely cost burdened, paying over half their income for housing expenses.
While the share of cost-burdened households was flat at 49%, it’s still 3.1 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels. These households aren’t just the ones with the lowest incomes, the cost burdens are increasingly climbing the income scale. For renters earning between $45,000 and $74,999, just over 49% were cost burdened, up 24.3 percentage points since 2001 and 9.5 points from the start of the pandemic.
According to the report, rent growth has outpaced income gains for renters over the past two decades. Between 2001 and 2024, the median rent rose 30% after adjusting for inflation, while the median renter household income increased 9%. In 2024, the median renter spent 31% of their income on rent and utilities, up from 29% in 2019 and 27% in 2001.
In addition, housing cost burdens have gone up in 44 states and 88 of the 100 largest metros from 2019 to 2024. The rate is highest in five markets in Florida—Miami, 63%; Orlando, 60%; Tampa, 59%; North Port, 59%; and Deltona, 59%—and in Las Vegas, 60%.
“We’re now seeing growing cost burdens among renters earning $45,000 to $75,000 and even among higher-income renters,” said Airgood-Obrycki. “At the same time, lower-income households are facing record levels of strain, with very little left over each month after paying for housing.”
In fact, the report finds for those households earning less than $30,000, they only had $210 left each month after paying rent and utilities—a 60% drop since 2001.
- Some other key figures from the report include:
While showing signs of slowing from its peak, multifamily construction remains elevated by historical standards. The number of apartments under construction fell from a record 996,000 in 2023 to 686,000 in 2025. Last year, developers started 416,000 units—well below the three-decade high in 2022 but above pre-pandemic levels; - Higher construction costs have contributed to the pullback. The cost of all material inputs to new residential construction skyrocketed 42% between January 2020 and December 2025. Labor costs also have increased since January 2020;
- Between 2010 and 2024, the nation’s total rental stock increased by 5.5 million units. However, the supply of low-rent units has decreased over the last decade. Accounting for inflation, the number of units renting for less than $600 decreased by 2.5 million, or 30%;
- The median age of the nation’s rental units was 45 years in 2023, up from 36 in 2003;
- Nationwide, 18.2 million occupied rental units, or 41%, are in areas exposed to weather- and climate-related threats; and
- Just over 1 in 4 income-eligible renter households receive some form of assistance—with the majority being older adults, families with children, or people with a disability.
While the report takes note of federal rental assistance and preservation programs not keeping pace with the need as well as other risks to new investment, it highlights policy innovations at the state and local level and bipartisan legislation introduced last year and currently going through Congress that could address affordability and supply shortages.
“Despite serious headwinds, there is a growing recognition across the political spectrum that safe, stable, affordable housing is fundamental to families’ well-being and to a strong economy,” Herbert added. “If we can build on emerging bipartisan momentum and learn from state and local innovations, we have an opportunity to make real progress on the nation’s rental housing challenges.”