US Housing Crisis Deepens: Fewer Homes, Higher Costs, Wider Burdens

Harvard's 2026 State of the Nation’s Housing finds persistent affordability challenges and economic uncertainty dampening mobility: only 1.1 million new households formed in 2025 and 11.2% relocated in 2024. Millions of households spend large shares of income on housing (20.7 million homeowners >30% and 9.6 million >50%; about half of renters, 22.7 million, are cost-burdened with 12.1 million severely burdened). Roughly 11 million extremely low‑income households compete for just 3.8 million affordable rental units. Aging homes raise maintenance costs, and burdens disproportionately hit renters in Florida/Nevada and homeowners in California/Hawaii, with Black and Hispanic homeowners more likely to be cost-burdened than White owners.