Texas is experiencing a significant decline in rental affordability, worsening faster than the national average, and Collin County led the state with the highest share of low-income households spending more than one-third of their income on rent.

That’s according to research economist Jorge Barro with the Texas Real Estate Research Center (TRERC) at Texas A&M.

In a Dec. 10 presentation to a rental affordability market outlook conference in Austin, Barro said rental affordability threatened the economic viability and opportunities for Texas residents, particularly for those households earning less than $35,000 per year.

For low-income families in Collin County, the rent burden was 95.0%, he said. Checking data available for 39 Texas counties, the mean (average) rent burden was 84.8% with the median (middle) rent burden at 85.7%.

Presenting data for members of the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers (TAAHP), Barro said rental affordability in Texas worsened noticeably after the pandemic, as measured by the share of renter households spending more than one-third of their income on rent. From 2017 through 2019, the share of cost-burdened renters in Texas hovered around 41%, dipped slightly in 2019, and then began rising in 2020. 

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By Bob Wieland | [email protected]