A new report from Makeroomusa.com states that Jacksonville area renters carry the heaviest rent burden in the country. In 2005, 21.3 percent of Jacksonville renters were “severely burdened”, with that number rising to 26.2 percent by 2009 until peaking today at 28.4 percent. A renter is considered severely burdened when fifty percent or more of their monthly income is spent on rent alone. On average, 26.4 percent of renters nationally are paying half of their income on rent, which works out to 11.4 million families.
“From 2005 to 2014, renters’ struggles grew by the largest amount in the Jacksonville, Florida metro area, where the share of renter households paying unaffordable rent increased by 7.2 percentage points,” according to the report. “In each of these metro areas, construction has failed to keep pace with the rising demand for non-luxury rental homes.”
