Rent Affordability Visualizing the median rent price as a percentage of income in all 3,000 + U.S. Counties

I recently created a map that shows the median monthly rent in every U.S. county. While this map is useful in seeing how rent fluctuates from one county to the next, it doesn't necessarily show how affordable rent prices are in a given city.

For example, counties with high monthly rents tend to have high household incomes. Likewise, counties with lower monthly rents tend to have lower household incomes.

To see how affordable rent prices are in a particular county, it's helpful to look at the median monthly rent price as a percentage of monthly household income. For example, a county with a median monthly rent of $1,000 and a median household income of $3,000 has a median rent as a percentage of income of 33.3%. The lower this number, the more affordable rent is in a given city.

Technical notes: Rent includes the cost of rent as well as utilities like water, gas, electricity, and sewer. Household income is the combined gross income (before taxes) of all the members of a household who are 15 years or older.

Check out the map below to see the median monthly rent as a percentage of household income in all 3,000+ U.S. counties. Click on or hover over individual counties to see the county name.