The city of Orlando is among the U.S cities with the highest housing costs for homeowners, according to a report from LendingTree.
The report looked at the 50 largest metro areas and ranked them by the share of homeowners who spend 30% or more of their monthly income on housing costs. That’s the federal standard set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to determine who is severely burdened by their housing costs.
Orlando ranked ninth, with 30.8% of its 346,349 homeowners spending at least 30% of their income on their monthly mortgage bill.
Two other major Florida cities made it into the top 20. Miami ranked second on the list with 40.7% of its homeowners dedicating more than 30% of their income on house payments. Tampa came in at 12 with 30.2%.
For reference, Los Angeles claimed the first spot with more than 42.2% of its 1.5 million homeowners pouring 30% of their income on their mortgage.
Orlando’s lack of affordable housing has been no secret, particularly to renters. The cost of an average rental when held up to average area wages makes the metro less affordable than San Francisco. A recent study found that the average Orlando adult doesn’t make enough money to cover their expenses.
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Still, buying a house is traditionally seen as the way out of this grind. Orlando’s white-hot housing market and endlessly rising costs have stripped many area homeowners of even that small bit of grace.
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This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2021.