The local geography of housing cost burden: Advantages and disadvantages among Veterans

Abstract: Research shows that, nationally, U.S. veteran households tend to spend a smaller share of their income on housing and, thus, face lower levels of housing insecurity than nonveteran households. In this report, the authors use detailed demographic data to scrutinize this trend at the local level by analyzing the share of household income spent on housing for veteran and nonveteran households across local areas for the 15-year period from 2007 to 2021. They focus on critical levels of household income shares spent on housing, referred to as moderate and severe housing cost burden (HCB), for U.S. Public Use Microdata Areas. Their analysis shows that, in important ways, the national veteran advantage in HCB does not hold across local areas. In many of the country's most expensive metropolitan areas, veteran households are more likely to experience critical levels of HCB than nonveteran households. Additionally, the authors found that, in some less populated areas, critical levels of HCB among veteran households are increasing at a concerning rate compared with nonveteran households, whose critical levels of HCB are stable or decreasing. The authors argue that there is a crucial need to understand local geographic differences in veteran HCB to help support existing policy efforts addressing veteran housing insecurity. They recommend improving HCB metrics and using those metrics to measure veteran HCB across local geographies, addressing moderate veteran HCB as an upstream predictor of homelessness, providing housing support earlier for both veteran renters and owners, and addressing persistent inequities in veteran HCB.