A new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University presents a sobering look at the latest data on housing cost burdens for older adult owners and renters. Housing America's Older Adults 2018 features information on: 

• Diversity of living arrangements.
• Homeowner and renter trends.
• Location and residential mobility.
• Disparities in household wealth.
• High housing cost burdens.
• Shortfall in housing subsidies.
• Shortage of accessible housing.
• Vulnerability to natural disasters.

The report found that in 2016, 9.7 million households [age 65 and over] – or nearly one-third – spent more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing. About 4.9 million were severely burdened, paying at least half their incomes for housing, including 3.4 million age 65–79 and 1.5 million age 80 and over. The share of cost-burdened households rises with age and renters are more likely to be cost burdened, the report also found.

Spending more than half of their income on housing means “older adults often sacrifice on other necessities. Severely cost burdened older households in the bottom expenditure quartile spent 53 percent less on food and 70 percent less on healthcare than otherwise similar households that living in hosing they can afford.

The report provides valuable state and some metro data on housing cost burdens for owners and renters for the 50–64, 65–79, and 80+ age groups.

The report also found that households now in their 50s to mid-60s are especially at risk of having insufficient resources to manage rising healthcare and housing costs in their later years. While most older adults live in single family homes, more are doubling up with relatives and non-relatives whether out of preference or necessity.

Homeownership rates among older adults are lower than in the past, with a sharp drop for those approaching 50 and a decline for those 50–64. Since this younger group is unlikely to match the homeownership rates of previous generations, many of these households will be unable to generate the same levels of wealth for retirement through equity building.

The median homeowner aged 50–64 had a net worth of $292,000 in 2016 – almost 60 times that of the same-age median renter, according to the report. The report also notes that the number of older owners who bring an increasing amount of mortgage debt with them into retirement continues to climb.