US states ranked by how much of their income residents spend on housing, from least to most

• Housing costs can vary across US states based on home prices, energy costs, and local wages.

• Hawaii has the highest cost burden, with both renters and owners spending over half of their income.

• New York has a gap of over 30 percentage points in housing burdens between renters and homeowners.

Whether you're shopping for a new home or just signed a lease on an apartment, you're no doubt aware of the high cost of housing — and the pressure it puts on tight budgets.

To understand how housing costs affect people across the US, it helps to examine how rent and mortgage payments fit into local living costs, including wages and energy costs.

For years, housing experts have cited keeping housing costs under 30% of monthly income as a rule of thumb for affordability, but in some states, this is far from a reality for many.

A recent WalletHub study examined housing affordability across the US, measuring how much of the median income renters and homeowners in each state spend on housing each month.

The study used data from the Council for Community and Economic Research, the US Census Bureau, Zillow, and WalletHub's in-house research to measure rent, mortgage, and home energy costs across all 50 states, which were then compared to each state's median monthly income to determine the burden of housing costs.

In Hawaii, renters spend an average of 62.5% of their income on housing costs, and homeowners spend 50% on average, the study reported.

While in some states the housing burden of homeowners and renters can be nearly equal — in Oklahoma, renters pay 20.3% and homeowners pay 20.4% of their income on housing costs — in others, there are significant gaps between the costs of renting and owning.

New York leads the gap, with homeowners in the state spending an average of 30.4% on housing while renters spend 61.3%.

"The current social and economic environment is significantly impacting monthly housing bill spending," Andrew Burnstine, an associate professor of business at Lynn University, said in the study. "This means that a larger portion of household budgets is now dedicated to simply keeping a roof overhead."

In 20 states, renters can be considered housing-burdened, or spending over 30% of their income on housing.

We ranked all 50 US states by how much both renters and homeowners spend on housing, on average. We also listed the median household income for each state, as reported on the most recent available American Community Survey data from the US Census Bureau, which reflects incomes in 2024.

See where each state falls.