Owner cost-burdened share, explained

What it measures

The owner cost-burdened share is the percentage of owner-occupied households that spend 30% or more of household income on selected monthly owner costs (SMOC), mortgage principal and interest, real estate taxes, fire/hazard/flood insurance, utilities, fuels, and any condo or mobile-home fees. The Census reports the calculation separately for homeowners with a mortgage and homeowners without a mortgage; CensusEasy sums both groups for a combined cost-burden rate.

The 30% threshold is the same as the rent-burden threshold. Note that for outright owners (no mortgage), housing costs are usually well below 30%, they consist only of taxes, insurance, and maintenance, so outright owners pull the combined rate downward. Most of the cost burden is concentrated among mortgaged owners.

Why it matters

Owner cost-burden has historically been less politically prominent than rent burden but has grown in significance as mortgage rates rose post-2022 and as monthly carrying costs (taxes and insurance especially) escalated in coastal markets. High-rate environments push more mortgaged owners across the 30% threshold. The metric also predicts foreclosure risk and the resilience of homeowner balance sheets to income shocks, burdened owners have less margin to absorb job loss or medical emergencies.

How the Census measures it

ACS Table B25091, Mortgage Status by Selected Monthly Owner Costs as a Percentage of Household Income. The Census Bureau computes SMOC for each owner-occupied household, calculates the ratio to household income, and assigns the household to a bracket. CensusEasy sums the brackets at 30% and above for both mortgaged and non-mortgaged owners and divides by the total owner-occupied units.

How to read the numbers

The US owner cost-burdened share is about 23%. State rates range from about 15% (West Virginia, Mississippi) to over 35% (California, Hawaii). The metro pattern is similar to rent burden: California, the Northeast, Hawaii, and Florida lead; low-cost Midwest and South lag. The owner rate is roughly half the renter rate because most owners benefit from a fixed mortgage payment that doesn't track inflation, while renters face annual rent increases. Owners who bought recently in high-rate environments are far more likely to be burdened than those with low fixed-rate mortgages from the 2010s.

Caveats and limitations

The metric combines mortgaged and non-mortgaged owners; for true affordability stress, the mortgaged-owner subset is the more meaningful slice (the Bureau publishes it separately in B25091). The metric also doesn't account for the wealth-building offset of mortgage principal payments, a household paying 35% of income to a mortgage is building equity, while a renter paying 35% is not.