Ranked: Seattle-area communities where homeowners struggle most

About 36.3 percent of King County homeowners spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Check out how the Seattle area’s cities and largest neighborhoods stack up when it comes to overburdened homeowners. less About 36.3 percent of King County homeowners spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. Check out how the Seattle area’s cities and largest neighborhoods stack up when it comes to ... more Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GRANT HINDSLEY, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 59 Caption Close Ranked: Seattle-area communities where homeowners struggle most 1 / 59 Back to Gallery

Turns out homeownership is a struggle these days in and around Seattle.

That’s the story being told daily to any King County resident who isn’t on a news boycott.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, though, the region’s rich cities and neighborhoods aren’t the ones feeling the pinch of high housing costs. While we’ve been marveling at 700-square-foot Seattle bungalows selling for $800,000, homeowners in the region's poorer, less-spendy areas are struggling to keep the bankers at bay.

Check out the slideshow above to see how King County’s cities and larger neighborhoods compare when it comes to homeowners spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing costs. The numbers come from a Public Health – Seattle & King County review of Census Bureau surveys.

The lessons offered by the numbers are similar to those offered by a look the region’s overburdened renters. They basically show that the core housing issue isn’t that the region’s rich aren’t quite rich enough, but that poor and middle-income are paying too much for housing.

Shelter being the most fundamental of human needs, people tend to spend there first. Those who are overburdened can’t take advantage of life’s opportunities – saving for the future, building a family, investing in themselves through recreation, education or healthy living.

In King County, woman-led households are slightly more likely than man-led households to be overburdened. Black, Latino and Pacific Islander homeowners are far more likely to be paying too much of their income on housing costs – more than half of homeowners who described themselves thusly said they spent more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing. That compares to about a third of white homeowners.

To offer the obvious, income is the biggest indicator as to whether a homeowner is staying ahead.

Basically all mortgage-holding homeowners with household incomes less than $50,000 are struggling. Even in homes where the earners are bringing in $50,000 to $75,000, more than 2/3rds are overburdened.

Above $75,000, the picture is rosier – just 18.5 percent of high-income households are spending more than 30 percent on housing costs.

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The statistics included here are drawn from a 2016 analysis of data from the Census Bureau’s American Communities Surveys conducted from 2010 to 2014.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.