Renter Costs

Gross Rent includes utility costs, defined as electricity, natural gas, water, and/or sewer bills.

Unless otherwise stated, all dollar amounts are in real 2017 dollars, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for "all items less shelter."

Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) data includes both owner- and renter-occupied households.

"Extremely Low-Income" (ELI) is defined as those with incomes at or below the federal poverty level or 30% of area median income, whichever is greater. "Very Low-Income" (VLI) is defined as those with incomes at or below 50% of area median income, including ELI households. Affordability is based on the common standard that households should not spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Rental units are both "affordable and available" to renters in a specific income group if the gross rent meets the 30% affordability threshold and they are either available for rent or occupied by households with incomes at or below the defined income level.

Typologies are defined by the Kirwan Institute at the census tract level, and are based on a combination of road network density, housing density, population density and age of housing.

American Housing Survey data are based on self-reported information.

"Severe housing cost burden" means a household is spending at least 50 percent of household income on gross rent or has no income. AMI refers to area median income as defined by HUD.