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Comment by talldatethrow | Hacker News Reader

If housing is unaffordable, who is renting and buying all the houses?

Read the article. They describe people as "severely cost burdened", meaning they pay the rent, but have very little left over for the rest of their bills. They also highlighted people that are beginning to share rent costs with others.

I totally believe it. My rent has stayed more or less the same throughout the pandemic, but food costs basically doubled, even tho I only buy groceries and eat at home. If I wasn’t in software I’d be severely limited in my options.

> It finds that in 2022, as rents spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, a record half of U.S. renters paid more than 30% of their income for rent and utilities. Nearly half of those people were severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50% of their income.

Unaffordable here is based on a specific definition. They consider it unaffordable for more than 30% of your income to go towards housing, it doesn't mean that you can't afford rent at all.

Sometimes I get more confused by reading the comments here. What was the parent even responding to?

Just the headline, trying to get a quick snarky comment in early I assume

>who is renting

The renters. What else are you gonna do, be homeless?

>and buying all the houses

The money bags bigger than yours. You're not competing just with other people for housing but with investors, and if they have more money than you, then they win.

Those who can afford and those who rent/buy what they can out of necessity, but are extremely economically hampered as a result with a significant reduction in quality of life.

The other 50%

No, the renters are still renting by definition.

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