Housing Cost Burden Calculator
Enter monthly income and housing costs to see the share of income going to housing — and how HUD would classify it.
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How this is calculated
Housing cost burden is housing costs divided by gross (pre-tax) income. HUD considers a household cost-burdened when it spends more than 30% of income on housing, and severely cost-burdened above 50%. For renters, housing costs include rent plus utilities; for owners, they include the mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance and utilities.
The 30% standard is a widely used rule of thumb, not a measure of what any particular household can afford. A family with high child-care or medical costs may struggle below 30%; a high-income household may be comfortable above it.
Related terms
- Housing Cost Burden
The condition of a household that spends more than 30% of its gross income on housing costs, including rent or mortgage payments and utilities. Spending more than 50% is called a severe cost burden.
- Severe Cost Burden
The condition of a household that spends more than half of its income on housing costs, the standard federal threshold for the most acute housing affordability problems.
- 30% Rule (Affordability Standard)
The widely used benchmark that housing is affordable when a household spends no more than 30% of its gross income on rent or mortgage costs plus utilities.
- Gross Rent
The full monthly cost of renting a home: the rent paid to the landlord plus the cost, or an allowance, for utilities the renter pays separately.
- Utility Allowance
An estimate, set by a housing agency or program rules, of what a household will reasonably spend each month on utilities it pays itself. Subsidized housing uses it to cap rents and calculate what tenants owe.