Study: Home Owners Spend More on Housing Costs

Nearly one in four working families spend more than half their income on housing costs, which includes utility costs, according to a new study by the Center for Housing Policy.

The organization found that about 23.6 percent of working households devoted more than half of their income to housing costs in 2010, which was an increase of 1.8 percentage points compared to 2008 data. Researchers define “working households” as those that earn less than 120 percent of a region’s median income.

Housing experts generally advise home owners to not devote any more than 30 percent of their pretax income toward housing costs.

"The data show that home owners have been hit hard by the housing crisis in more ways than just lost equity," Jeffrey Lubell, executive director at the Center for Housing Policy, said in a statement. "Many working home owners have been laid off or had their hours cut."

The states with the highest number of households spending more than half their incomes on housing were:

California: 34 percent
Florida: 33 percent
New Jersey: 32 percent
Hawaii: 30 percent
Nevada: 29 percent
Source: “1 in 4 Spend More Than Half of Income on Housing, Study Says,” AOL Real Estate (Feb. 27, 2012)