A scarcity of affordable multibedroom rentals is the biggest barrier
Key Findings:
- Rent burden falls harder on families: Families with children are more likely to be rent-burdened than nonfamily households -- a gap driven not by income, but by the higher cost of the larger homes families need.
- Family-size rentals are scarce: Thirty-seven percent of rentals offered two bedrooms, and only 24% offered three or more as of July 2026, limiting options for the more than one-third of renters who have children.
- The housing shortage is the underlying cause: The U.S. is short 4.7 million homes, driving up housing costs across the board.
SEATTLE, Aug. 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid rising inflation and childcare costs, families today face another affordability hurdle: rent burden. A new Zillow® and StreetEasy® analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey data shows that approximately 1 in 3 family households with children under the age of 18 today are renting their home, and more than half of those families (54.1%) are rent burdened. In addition, 49.7% of all U.S. renters are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than the recommended 30% of household income on rent.
The reason is structural. Families with children often need more space and more bedrooms, but these larger homes come at a higher cost and are in shorter supply. Across the country, just over one-third (37%) of all rentals on Zillow in July offered two bedrooms, and fewer than one-quarter (24.4%) offered three or more.
"At its heart, our affordability crisis is a supply crisis," said Zillow and StreetEasy Senior Economist Kenny Lee. "As the average age of renters climbs, more than a third of renters today have children, yet their options for affordable family-sized apartments remain limited in most markets. That pushes competition for homes higher, which pushes housing costs higher, and ultimately leads to more families doubling up or staying in homes they've long outgrown."
While family households generally earn significantly more than their nonfamily counterparts, they still struggle to make the math work in high-cost markets. In Miami, for example, where 41.7% of all family households are renters, an outsize 67% of those renter family households face rent burden. Though the median family household income in Miami is $100,000 -- well above the $52,000 median income for nonfamily households -- the median rent for a two-bedroom rental is $2,600, or $31,200 annually, pushing into rent burden territory.
The challenge for families to find affordable housing is most extreme in expensive coastal markets like Seattle and New York City, where fewer than half of rental listings on Zillow and StreetEasy had at least two bedrooms, as of July. NYC has the highest share of renter families of any market across the country, at 66.7%, yet just 48.1% of July rental listings had multiple bedrooms. The median family household income in the city sits just under $89,000 per year -- nearly $27,000 more than the median nonfamily household. Despite that income advantage, 53.4% of renter family households spent more than 30% of their income on housing, as median rent for a two-bedroom rental runs $4,750, or $57,000 annually.
Zillow research shows that America's housing deficit of 4.7 million units -- the result of nearly two decades of underbuilding -- is the primary driver of the housing affordability crisis today. Closing that gap requires building more homes, and a significant amount of land to build them on is already available. More than 300,000 empty lots were listed for sale on Zillow in June 2026, representing 17.4% of all for-sale listings. Building just one home on each of those lots would reduce America's housing deficit by 6.3% -- and the typical lot is often large enough to support more than one unit, meaning the real potential is even higher.
Yet zoning rules in many cities still restrict how and where larger, multibedroom rental homes and manufactured housing can be built, and permitting backlogs slow construction in the markets where it is needed most. Zillow advocates for flexible zoning to allow more density, streamlined permitting and expanded financing options for manufactured housing to unlock homeownership for more people. Read more about what needs to change in our ongoing affordability research.
Metro area Share of Share of Median Median Median Share of Share of
family renter family annual annual rentals
list with rentals
households families household list rent rent for two with three
that rent that are income for two three or bedrooms or more
rent bedrooms more bedrooms
burdened bedrooms
United States 31.7 % 54.1 % $107,800 $21,480 $27,600 37.0 % 24.4 %
Orlando, FL 40.4 % 68.8 % $96,000 $22,128 $28,080 36.9 % 30.2 %
Miami, FL 41.7 % 67.0 % $100,000 $31,200 $42,300 37.6 % 26.5 %
New Orleans, LA 31.6 % 66.4 % $86,802 $17,400 $23,400 38.1 % 26.2 %
Jacksonville, FL 29.9 % 63.6 % $101,793 $19,116 $24,000 38.0 % 41.9 %
Tampa, FL 32.4 % 63.4 % $107,665 $21,900 $28,740 40.0 % 24.8 %
Hartford, CT 26.9 % 62.8 % $130,000 $24,708 $28,800 38.9 % 18.1 %
Raleigh, NC 28.2 % 61.0 % $143,195 $19,188 $24,948 36.8 % 25.8 %
Riverside, CA 38.1 % 60.8 % $102,000 $28,800 $40,260 40.2 % 32.9 %
Houston, TX 34.8 % 60.6 % $101,344 $18,288 $26,100 32.3 % 25.2 %
San Antonio, TX 35.3 % 60.2 % $95,000 $15,948 $21,564 31.5 % 27.9 %
Virginia Beach, VA 39.9 % 60.2 % $95,437 $21,000 $28,740 44.3 % 26.0 %
San Diego, CA 44.5 % 60.1 % $135,000 $37,740 $52,812 39.5 % 18.3 %
Los Angeles, CA 50.9 % 60.1 % $117,500 $36,612 $53,940 33.5 % 18.2 %
Louisville, KY 28.8 % 59.9 % $97,422 $15,540 $21,018 45.2 % 21.6 %
Las Vegas, NV 42.1 % 59.0 % $95,205 $18,492 $26,280 38.9 % 27.4 %
Memphis, TN 45.7 % 58.9 % $84,315 $13,560 $19,140 35.8 % 36.5 %
Nashville, TN 28.6 % 57.1 % $108,808 $20,340 $27,180 35.8 % 22.3 %
Atlanta, GA 28.5 % 57.1 % $120,000 $20,364 $26,400 36.4 % 28.1 %
Detroit, MI 24.8 % 56.5 % $108,000 $17,940 $20,400 44.5 % 22.7 %
Portland, OR 29.8 % 56.4 % $139,210 $21,540 $31,140 39.4 % 16.3 %
Dallas, TX 33.2 % 56.4 % $116,522 $20,280 $28,200 33.7 % 19.2 %
Chicago, IL 26.9 % 56.4 % $120,631 $25,800 $33,000 36.1 % 18.6 %
Boston, MA 30.2 % 56.3 % $170,000 $38,340 $50,400 34.3 % 27.0 %
Baltimore, MD 28.1 % 56.3 % $138,000 $21,804 $29,700 40.4 % 24.2 %
Denver, CO 25.9 % 55.8 % $150,000 $24,120 $34,980 35.9 % 14.1 %
Providence, RI 33.5 % 55.7 % $114,000 $26,220 $31,200 39.8 % 28.6 %
Milwaukee, WI 28.1 % 55.4 % $116,920 $21,540 $23,760 41.9 % 17.9 %
Sacramento, CA 34.9 % 55.3 % $123,000 $24,768 $34,800 38.9 % 26.0 %
Philadelphia, PA 26.6 % 55.1 % $125,000 $23,700 $28,800 35.0 % 18.5 %
Buffalo, NY 25.7 % 54.9 % $108,000 $17,940 $20,400 49.4 % 24.3 %
Minneapolis, MN 19.6 % 54.5 % $144,931 $21,420 $29,400 36.7 % 13.7 %
Seattle, WA 31.7 % 54.4 % $165,000 $27,600 $38,694 30.7 % 14.5 %
Columbus, OH 31.1 % 54.3 % $117,062 $18,048 $24,600 48.6 % 15.4 %
Indianapolis, IN 27.8 % 54.1 % $110,000 $17,400 $22,200 42.1 % 21.7 %
Pittsburgh, PA 21.4 % 53.9 % $120,000 $17,940 $21,600 37.0 % 20.8 %
New York, NY* 66.7 % 53.4 % $88,937 $57,000 $66,000 30.8 % 17.3 %
Cleveland, OH 27.2 % 53.3 % $105,000 $15,720 $19,200 41.2 % 24.3 %
Richmond, VA 30.1 % 52.7 % $114,000 $20,028 $26,940 42.6 % 19.1 %
St. Louis, MO 22.7 % 52.6 % $118,206 $16,896 $21,402 41.9 % 21.5 %
Phoenix, AZ 31.4 % 52.2 % $113,797 $19,488 $27,000 37.8 % 25.2 %
Oklahoma City, OK 33.3 % 52.2 % $88,307 $13,800 $19,500 33.1 % 37.1 %
Austin, TX 31.8 % 52.2 % $140,000 $19,200 $25,800 32.2 % 20.0 %
Birmingham, AL 25.8 % 52.0 % $106,508 $15,600 $17,784 37.8 % 34.2 %
Charlotte, NC 29.9 % 52.0 % $114,599 $20,340 $25,788 36.1 % 23.0 %
Cincinnati, OH 26.5 % 52.0 % $117,103 $18,042 $23,994 42.1 % 18.2 %
Washington, DC 28.7 % 51.7 % $165,000 $30,000 $38,400 34.0 % 16.5 %
Kansas City, MO 25.4 % 50.3 % $115,000 $18,828 $23,400 37.5 % 21.5 %
San Francisco, CA 37.0 % 49.9 % $200,000 $38,400 $51,540 35.3 % 18.5 %
Salt Lake City, UT 24.7 % 46.6 % $124,962 $19,860 $28,320 34.7 % 17.4 %
San Jose, CA 41.7 % 42.5 % $235,409 $47,136 $59,400 38.6 % 17.4 %
*Includes only New York City's five boroughs
Methodology
This analysis is based on Zillow and StreetEasy analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) microdata. "Family households" are defined as two or more people living together who are related by birth, marriage or adoption, with children under the age of 18 in the home. Nonfamily households include unmarried partners, unrelated roommates and single-person households. Rent burden is defined as spending more than 30% of household income on housing costs. Metro-level data reflects the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas. Rental trend data specific to New York City reflects asking rents on StreetEasy.
About Zillow Group
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