Congressional Digest

Excerpt

(Excerpted from Congressional Digest, December 2007)

An estimated 12 million renter and homeowner
households now pay more than 50 percent of their
annual incomes on housing, and since 2000, the number
of middle-income households that spend more than half
their pre-tax wages on rent has doubled.
Meanwhile, there is an acute lack of affordable housing,
especially rental, in the United States.
Another reason for the affordable housing shortage is
that over the last decade or so, Federal policies have emphasized
homeownership over other options — even though
about a third of all households still rent.
Over th…