NLIHC has released the 2025 edition of its Out of Reach report, which chronicles the gulf between the wages people earn and the price of decent rental housing in every state, metropolitan area, and county in the United States. And this year’s findings show that not only are average wages not enough for housing available to extremely low-income households, but things could be made far worse with pending deep cuts from the federal government.
The data is clear: half of all renters in the United States are cost burdened, meaning they spend at least 30 percent of their monthly income on rent. And one quarter of all renters in the U.S. are severely cost burdened, spending at least 50 percent of their income on rent.
NLIHC calculates general affordability using its “Housing Wage,” which is the hourly wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on housing costs. This figure shows that while wages have increased slightly, they are not keeping up with the substantial difference in housing costs.
In Texas, the housing wage for the entire state is $29.64 per hour, but going into our major cities, required wages climb even higher. When calculating our most populous metropolitan areas: in Dallas it’s $36.23, in Fort Worth it’s $32.79, and in Austin it’s $37.48. However, high prices aren’t limited to urban areas. In Kendall County near Boerne it’s $33.23, in Martin County near Odessa it’s $35.92, and in Midland it’s $35.90.
As a reminder, the minimum wage in Texas is the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and the average renter wage in Texas is $25.01. In no state, metropolitan area, or county can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford a modest two-bedroom rental home at Fair Market Rent. In fact, in Texas, an individual must work 164 hours per week at minimum wage to afford a 2-Bedroom Rental Home at fair market rent or 137 hours per week to afford a 1-Bedroom Rental Home.
This illustrates a statewide crisis for renters of all types, but most acutely harming low-wage workers. In fact, 17 of the nation’s 25 most common occupations pay median wages less than what a full-time worker needs to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at the national average fair market rent. Approximately 72 million people, or almost half (47%) of the entire workforce, work in these 17 common occupations.
Households of color earn less and have fewer homes available to them within their “housing wage,” with the fact that they are more likely to work in these most common occupations with lower wages. And given our nation’s history with redlining, discrimination, and other issues stemming from racism, the cost burden for Black and Latino men and women is far higher than their white counterparts.
These are issues that we have identified and have worked to solve for years, however an unexpected dramatic downturn is soon approaching with President Trump’s proposed cuts for Housing Choice Vouchers. Per Out of Reach:
“The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) HUD budget underfunded the HCV program, potentially resulting in the loss of 32,000 vouchers through attrition. Current federal budget proposals threaten to deepen the crisis. The president’s budget request for FY26 proposes a devastating 44% cut to HUD’s overall funding, which would eliminate rental assistance programs, consolidate five key programs into a single, restrictive State Rental Assistance Block Grant, and impose a two-year time limit on assistance.”
This will have a devastating effect on low-income families who otherwise would not have affordable housing available to them. The money required to purchase, operate and maintain housing for households at this income level is not sustainable with rent alone; subsidy is essential to make them whole. The Housing Choice Voucher program is not the only solution for low-cost housing, but for those families who have vouchers and are able to use them, they are a critical lifeline.
With this in mind, there are leaders in congress who are working to expand housing choice vouchers. The “Family Stability and Opportunity Vouchers Act” would provide 250,000 new housing vouchers and pair them with counseling services to help families with young children secure housing in areas with strong schools, job opportunities, and essential resources – giving families a chance at long-term stability and improved outcomes. Additionally, the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program created under the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” is a program that funded new tenant-based rental assistance vouchers for those experiencing or at immediate risk of homelessness, including survivors of intimate partner violence and human trafficking. By 2026, HUD estimates the EHV program will exhaust its resources, endangering 60,000 households who rely on EHV’s to future displacement or homelessness, however, several congressional members are pushing for continued funding to extend the program.
To learn more about what renters are currently facing and what other solutions are currently being explored to fix our affordable housing crisis, you can read the 2025 Out Of Reach report below or visit https://nlihc.org/oor.
