Tenants paying rent represent 43% of Golden State households

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Only 18% of California’s 13.7 million households live in a house they own without a mortgage. That’s a far thinner slice compared with the 26% of the 131 million US households that are mortgage-free.

And only Washington D.C., at 10%, has a smaller share of households without a mortgage. West Virginia was No. 1 at 40%.

Now, let’s look at other households. Start with the 38% of California households that own their home with the help of a mortgage. Those borrowers are the 11th-smallest slice among the states but it’s also just below the 39% share nationally.

Do not forget California’s large share of renters. Tenants paying rent represent 43% of Golden State households – third-highest behind D.C. (60%) and New York (45%). Nationally, it’s 33%.

And let’s note a curious slice tracked by Census – tenants paying no rent. These households, certainly blessed with generous landlords or curious living arrangements, are 1.4% of Californians (No. 34 among the states) and that’s below 1.6% nationally.Pressure points

Mortgage-free living is growing. California had 2.5 million households without a mortgage last year, the third-largest tally among the state behind Texas (3.1 million) and Florida (2.6 million).

The Golden State’s no-loan owners grew by 12% from pre-pandemic 2019, the No. 28 gain among the states. Nevada was tops with a 24% jump. Nationally, 33.6 million owners were mortgage-free, up 13% in four years.

Still, no home loan doesn’t mean a household without housing costs. Remember, there’s pricier insurance, taxes, repairs, etc.

So no-mortgage homes cost their owners a median $834 a month in California in 2023, that’s the seventh-highest expense and is 33% above the U.S. norm of $629.

These expenditures rose by 34% in four years, the second-largest gain behind Colorado’s 37%. And it outpaced a 24% jump nationally.

Even a family budget with no home loan can be stretched by housing costs.

Last year, 17.8% of California’s mortgage-free households spent 30%-plus of their income on housing, a problematic level by some measurements. That’s the eighth-largest burden among the states and a slice that’s grown from 14.5% in four years.

Nationally, 15.2% of mortgage-less households spent 30%-plus on housing, up 12.5% in 2019.

Gen Z adults are caught between the high costs of rent and the inability to buy a home