A lack of new housing, and more demand for existing supply, has driven up prices. Though Pennsylvania’s population has declined in recent years, the commonwealth’s population has also shifted toward larger metro areas and the southeast part of the state. Housing and Urban Development agency defines rent-burdened as families “who pay more than 30% of their income for housing” and “may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation, and medical care.” Severe rent burden would be 50%. Almost a dozen counties have at least 50% of renters who are rent-burdened. According to the Up for Growth report, only one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties has fewer than 30% of renters who aren’t rent-burdened. Philadelphia isn’t unique for rent-burdened problems. In Philadelphia, almost 50% of households are “rent burdened,” defined as spending at least 30% of income on rent. Housing prices in Pennsylvania rose by 14% from 2020 to 2021, including a 40% increase in apartment rents since 2017 in central Pennsylvania, as The Center Square has previously reported. “In a ranking of community concerns, housing affordability outpolled drug addiction, the economic and health effects of COVID-19, and crime,” Up for Growth CEO Mike Kingsella and COO Leah MacArthur noted in the report. The shortage is most pronounced along the eastern half of the commonwealth, according to The New York Times, and in Centre County, where Penn State University is located. Pennsylvania, by the group’s estimate, is missing 98,000 housing units statewide. HARRISBURG, PA – Housing underproduction isn’t just a problem along the coasts anymore: high rents are becoming a problem across the nation.Ī new report from Up for Growth, a research group focused on housing shortages, notes that the United States went from underproducing 1.65 million units of housing a decade ago to underproducing almost 3.8 million units of housing by 2019. High housing costs across the nation, including in Spokane County, are putting pressure on the rental market and driving costs up for lower-income families. A “For Rent” sign is shown in Philadelphia.

Apartments for rent near lock haven pa