From Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, December 16, 2020
The year 2020 has been a tumultuous one, as the nation faces the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences, unrest sparked by long-standing racial injustice, and the devastating effects of climate change. Increases in rents continue to outpace income gains, and millions of households face unaffordable cost burdens according to the latest State of the Nation’s Housing 2020 report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The pandemic’s economic effects have amplified this crisis, and households with low incomes were more likely to report a loss of income and were more likely to be severely cost burdened. For aspiring homeowners, a combination of tight housing supply and historically low mortgage rates have increased the price of homes.
The report uses the most recent data from the US Census Bureau, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve, CoreLogic, and the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey for September 2020.
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