Share of Cost-Burdened Households Grows Among Older Generations

It’s common knowledge that younger generations struggle with housing affordability, but older homeowners also have become more cost burdened in recent years. According to a recently released report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, 34%—or about 12.4 million—of older households are cost burdened, per data captured in 2023. More than half of these households pay over 50% of their income for housing, making them severely cost burdened. Comparatively, just 2.3 million older households were cost burdened in 2019.

For those over 80 years in age, the share of cost-burdened households only grows. Nearly 40% of households in this age group are burdened compared with just over 32% of those aged 65 to 79.

Older homeowners, a far larger group owing to the high homeownership rate among older adults, are not immune from growing affordability challenges. Between 2019 and 2023, the cost-burden rate for older homeowners rose from 24 percent to nearly 28 percent. This lifted the number of cost-burdened older homeowners to 7.9 million, an increase of over 1.7 million since 2019. The number of households with cost burdens rose to 4.1 million, up 1.1 million households from four years prior.

Older owners with mortgages are more likely to face affordability challenges than those who own free and clear. Fully 43 percent of older owners with mortgages are cost burdened, compared to 19 percent of those who own without a mortgage. The number and share of older adults with mortgages have grown over the past decades: in 2022, fully 31 percent of owners in their 80s and over held a mortgage on their homes. Yet steep increases in property insurance are contributing to affordability challenges for even those with no mortgage, particularly in areas with the greatest risk of climate-related disasters.