CardRates: Many Young Americans Spending Significantly on Housing

(Image courtesy of CardRates)

CardRates, Gainesville, Fla., released a survey of millennial and Gen Z Americans, finding 76.32% of respondents are spending more than 31% of their monthly income on housing.

Traditionally, it’s been recommended that people shouldn’t spend more than 30% of monthly wages on housing expenses.

Housing expenses include rent or mortgage payments, property taxes, home insurance, utilities and occasionally other costs such as co-op fees.

Of the respondents, 52.97% report spending more than half their monthly income on housing costs. Moreover, 12.33% said they spend between 51-60% of their income on those costs.

The costs appear to be hitting millennials a little harder–81.72% said they spend more than 31% of their income on housing expenses, compared with 70.37% of Gen Z. Additionally, 59.66% of millennials say they spend more than 50% of their income, compared with 45.6% of Gen Z respondents.

By gender, 78.95% of women spend more than 31% of their income on housing expenses, compared with 71.47% of men. Women continued to spend more as those numbers increased–with 13.75% saying they spent between 71-80% of their monthly income on housing.

Nearly 10% of women claimed to spend almost all their income on housing costs, compared with 3% of men.

On the flip side, very low housing expenses are rare–only 0.44% of the respondents said they spend less than 10% of their monthly salary on housing expenses.