Rural housing report highlights the lack of affordable housing for many; renting is the most expensive

More than half of rural residents under age 35 rent.
(HAC graph, from Census Bureau data)

While rural residents are more likely to be homeowners, many don't own homes and struggle to find affordable housing to buy or rent. To gauge how the market is going, the Housing Assistance Council, better known as HAC, just released its "Taking Stock" report, which "uses data gathered over the last decade to paint a picture of the lives of the 60 million folks who call rural America home," reports Lia Kvatum of The Daily Yonder. "The report also includes historical data covering the last half century and beyond that shows how things have changed over the years — for better and worse."

The report shows the lack of affordable housing is a growing national problem, but it also looks at "trends and issues important to rural people, places, and housing." Kvatum adds, "The report lays bare some rather sobering statistics for small towns and rural areas in particular."

• One-quarter of all rural households spend more than 30% of their monthly income on housing. More than 40% of those are renters.
• Rural renters of color are the hardest hit.
• Housing costs have increased dramatically over the last few decades, and the Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated the problem.
• The number of banks across rural America has decreased by half since 1995.

HAC's Director of Research and Information Lance George told Kvatum, "More than half of all FDIC-insured banks are actually located in rural areas. But . . . most lending activity is concentrated within a few, typically larger banks. Fewer banks just means less access or longer commutes to access these services."

The report examined the current rural housing rental market, which is already expensive, and predicted costs would continue to increase. "About a quarter of occupied rural homes are rentals. And the rental market can be tight because of a lack of affordable properties," Kvatum explains. 

Still, the news was not all bad. "Most rural Americans live in safe and affordable houses, as has been the case for many decades; most own their own homes," Kvatum reports. "There's been a steep drop in the number of households that don't have plumbing—in 1970, 14% did not have plumbing. By 2021, that number was less than 1%."