Cost-Burdened Households

  1. Severely Cost Burdened

Data Table

Explanation

When households spend too much of their income on housing, they have less money for other basic needs like food, health care, and transportation. Households that spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs are considered cost-burdened and those that spend more than 50% are severely cost-burdened. Housing costs include expenses like rent, mortgage payments, utilities, and maintenance. The count of cost-burdened households includes severely cost-burdened households.

For the 2020-2024 period, nearly 38,000 Thurston County households were cost burdened, which is 32% of all households. Of those, nearly 17,000 (15%) were severely cost burdened.

Sustainable Thurston Report Card

The Sustainable Thurston Report Card tracks how well the Thurston region is doing at meeting basic needs. The goal includes two targets for 2035:

  • Fewer than 10% of households will be cost burdened
  • Fewer than 5% of households will be severely cost burdened

Source

  • U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey