Rent burden hits families with children hardest
PR Newswire
SEATTLE, Aug. 13, 2026
A scarcity of affordable multibedroom rentals is the biggest barrierKey Findings:Rent burden falls harder on families: Families with children are more likely to be rent-burdened than nonfamily households — a gap driven not by income, but by the higher cost of the larger homes families need.Family-size rentals are scarce: Thirty-seven percent of rentals offered two bedrooms, and only 24% offered three or more as of July 2026, limiting options for the more than one-third of renters who have children.The housing shortage is the underlying cause: The U.S. is short 4.7 million homes, driving up housing costs across the board.SEATTLE, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid rising inflation and childcare costs, families today face another affordability hurdle: rent burden. A new Zillow® and StreetEasy® analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data shows that approximately 1 in 3 family households with children under the age of 18 today are renting their home, and more than half of those families (54.1%) are rent burdened. In addition, 49.7% of all U.S. renters are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than the recommended 30% of household income on rent.
