I’ve been meaning to post more about this since those new data came out Tuesday from the Census Bureau about how much San Diegans are spending on housing.
In the middle class story this week, I mentioned and graphed these numbers: Last year, 49 percent of homeowners with a mortgage, and 15 percent of homeowners without a mortgage, spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. And 55 percent of renting households paid more than 30 percent of their income to their landlords.
When the data came out, the New York Times ran this story about how this housing-cost burden is a nationwide problem.
And in that story, Temecula and Hemet were listed as the places with the highest percentage of renters writing rent checks for more than 30 percent of their incomes – 74 percent in Temecula and 73 percent in Hemet paying over that threshold.
That seems a bit surprising to us over here. Aren’t Temecula and Hemet (in Riverside County) the places where everybody’s fleeing to buy homes that are cheaper than the ones in San Diego County? Can anyone fill me in about the renting market in those towns?
Got to chat about bits of the middle-class story on Full Focus, the KPBS evening news show, this afternoon. It’ll air tonight at 6:30 and 11:00 p.m. Should make for some rousing Friday night television.