Bloomberg, January 31, 2020: The U.S. housing crisis is making its way to the heartland
Earning $40,000 a year in Omaha used to be enough to make rent comfortably. Not anymore.
Housing costs are slipping out of reach for the middle class in smaller and medium-size cities across the U.S., the latest sign that the affordability crisis that started on the coasts is moving inland, according to research released on Friday by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
From 2011 to 2018, the proportion of households making $30,000 to $45,000 a year that were “cost-burdened” — paying more than 30% of their income on rent — soared the most in metros including Nashville, Tennessee; Greenville, South Carolina; and McAllen, Texas.
