Hello again…for the end of 2024, we bring you the third and final post in our Housing Cost Burden series of the past month.

In the first two posts, we examined housing cost burden among owners and renters in the Atlanta region, with a focus on the racial disparities between Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites. Now, we consider how the Atlanta region compares to other major metros. We again make use of the tables addressing housing cost burden by race and ethnicity from the latest release of the 1-year American Community Survey.

Figure 1 below shows the percentage of owners and renters who are cost-burdened for the top 20 metros in the United States, according to population size.

Figure 1: Top 20 Metros: Owner and Renter Shares, 2023 ACS 1-Year

As Figure 1 (above) demonstrates, there is a moderate correlation (r =.61) between cost-burdened owners and renters among the top 20 metros. Miami has the highest rates of cost-burdened households for both renters (about 63%) and owners (about 34%) alike, meaning that housing costs are considerably more out of balance with incomes in Miami than in any of the other metros. Several metro areas fall well below the trend line in this graph, meaning that they have considerably lower rates of cost-burdened renters than one might expect, given the rates of cost-burdened owners. These include New York, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Washington DC—metros where the core cities have at least some measure of rent control. Notably, Seattle and Chicago also fall below the trend line, yet do not have these controls. In the case of Atlanta, we have the 6th lowest rate of cost-burdened owners, yet the 6th highest rate of cost-burdened renters, and as such fall somewhat above the trend line.

Figure 2 (below) compares the percentage of non-Hispanic White and Black cost-burdened renters for each of the top 20 metros.

Figure 2: Top 20 Metros– Cost-Burdened Renter Shares by Race/ Ethnicity

The above Figure 2 reveals that Black renters are cost-burdened at higher rates than White renters in all twenty of the top U.S. metropolitan areas. The percentage point gap is highest among renters in Denver (18.1) and San Francisco (16.1), and lowest in New York (6.0) and Miami (5.3). Atlanta is close to the median among the top 20 metros, with Black renters experiencing cost-burden 11.1 percent more than Non-Hispanic White renters.

Figure 3 that follows compares cost-burden rates between Non-Hispanic White and Black homeowners.

Figure 3: Top 20 Metros–Share of  Cost-Burdened Owners by Race/ Ethnicity

As was the case with renters, Black homeowners are cost-burdened at higher rates than White homeowners in all 20 metro areas. Again, the largest disparities in percent cost-burdened show up in San Francisco (15.7) and Denver (14.3). The differences are smallest in San Diego (6.3) and Phoenix (3.8). And with a gap of 11.8 points, Atlanta has the 5th largest disparity between the two subgroups.