For renters in New York and other pricey corners of the country, the monthly housing bill is not just painful, it is eating up a staggering share of take-home pay. A new study from WalletHub finds both renters and homeowners in high-cost states such as Hawaii and New York are blowing past the traditional 30% affordability benchmark, while many Midwestern and Plains states look relatively sane by comparison.
What the ranking measured
As reported by Business Insider, WalletHub stacked up rent, mortgage payments and home energy costs against each state's median monthly income, pulling data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow and the Council for Community and Economic Research. The result is a pair of burden measures, one for renters and one for homeowners, and a ranking of all 50 states.
According to the analysis, renters in 20 states are now spending more than 30% of their income on housing, the long-standing line where experts say households start to be considered cost-burdened.
Hawaii tops the list
According to WalletHub, Hawaii lands in the worst spot for both renters and homeowners. Renters there spend about 62.5% of their income on housing, while homeowners shell out roughly 50.02%. Even higher-earning households are not catching a break once hefty mortgage payments and steep home energy costs are factored in.
Those twin pressures are what push Hawaii to the top of WalletHub's lists for both renting and owning.
New York renters face the widest gap
Business Insider notes that New York stands out for a different reason: the chasm between what renters pay and what homeowners pay. Renters in the state are spending about 61.3% of their income on housing, compared to roughly 30.4% for homeowners, a gap of more than 30 percentage points.
"The current social and economic environment is significantly impacting monthly housing bill spending," Andrew Burnstine said in the study, underscoring how sharply household budgets have tilted toward keeping a roof overhead.
A national pattern of rising renter burdens
The state-by-state findings line up with a national picture that has been getting steadily grimmer for tenants. The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that roughly 49% of renter households were cost-burdened in 2024, and that the number of severely burdened renters has climbed sharply since the start of the pandemic.
That research points to a familiar one-two punch: rising rents and a shortage of affordable units. Together, they have forced millions of households into tough tradeoffs between housing and other basics, including food and healthcare.
What renters can do and what to watch next
WalletHub's experts outline some defensive moves for households trying to keep the bills in check: tighter budgeting, cutting back on utility use and prioritizing savings for a down payment or an emergency fund. It is not a cure-all, but it is the playbook WalletHub publishes alongside its rankings.
The numbers are also feeding ongoing debates about how to expand affordable housing and strengthen rental assistance at both the state and federal levels. Given the scale of the burdens the ranking exposes, many analysts argue that policy changes will be crucial if housing costs are going to ease in any meaningful way.
For New Yorkers and island residents alike, the study is a reminder that housing affordability is not an abstract economic talking point, it is a monthly budget crunch. Expect more scrutiny of state and city housing indicators as researchers, advocates and policymakers respond to what these rankings lay bare.
