Cities Where Home Owners Spend the Most

Cities Where Home Owners Spend the Most

Almost 15 percent of American home owners with a mortgage spend half of their income or more on housing costs, according to 2007 data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. That is up from nearly 7.1 million in 2006.

Traditionally, the government and most lenders consider home owners spending 30 percent or more of their income on housing costs to be financially burdened. That definition now covers nearly 38 percent of American home owners with a mortgage – 19 million of them.

Here are the top 13 areas where the most mortgage holders spend more than 30 percent of their income on their homes. The information is an estimate based on an analysis of Census data by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, 58 percent
Stockton, Calif.,57 percent
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., 55 percent
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., 55 percent
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif., 54 percent
Modesto, Calif., 54 percent
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif., 53 percent
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif., 53 percent
Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, Fla., 52 percent
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif., 52 percent
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., 51 percent
Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., 51 percent
Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif., 50 percent

Source: The Associated Press, Adrian Sainz and Alan Zibel (09/23/08)