Is the Rent Too Damn High?

Analyzing US Census Data in Python

Lee Hachadoorian

Asst. Professor of Instruction, Temple University

Definitions

Different ways of calculating rent:

Contract Rent: Rent paid on a lease
Gross Rent: Rent plus utilities; utilities may be included in contract rent on some leases, paid separately by the renter on other leases

Rent burden:

Rent Burden: Paying 30% or more of household income in rent
Severe Rent Burden: Paying 50% or more of household income in rent

Table B25074: HH Income By Gross Rent As a Percentage of HH Income in the Past 12 Months

Total
    Less than $10,000
        Less than 20.0 percent
        20.0 to 24.9 percent
        25.0 to 29.9 percent
        30.0 to 34.9 percent
        35.0 to 39.9 percent
        40.0 to 49.9 percent
        50.0 percent or more
        Not computed
    $10,000 to $19,999
    $20,000 to $34,999
    $35,000 to $49,999
    $50,000 to $74,999
    $75,000 to $99,999
    $100,000 or more

United States Rent Share of Income, ACS 2012-2016

total                                     42835169
inc_under_10k                              5558843
inc_under_10k_rent_under_20_pct              57052
inc_under_10k_rent_20_to_25_pct              58042
inc_under_10k_rent_25_to_30_pct             208806
inc_under_10k_rent_30_to_35_pct             177709
inc_under_10k_rent_35_to_40_pct             102565
inc_under_10k_rent_40_to_50_pct             150153
inc_under_10k_rent_over_50_pct             3381537
inc_under_10k_rent_not_computed            1422979
inc_10k_to_20k                             7027373
inc_10k_to_20k_rent_under_20_pct            213000
etc...

Calculating Rent Burden

print(rent.columns[10:19])

Index(['inc_10k_to_20k', 'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_under_20_pct',
   'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_20_to_25_pct', 'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_25_to_30_pct',
   'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_30_to_35_pct', 'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_35_to_40_pct',
   'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_40_to_50_pct', 'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_over_50_pct',
   'inc_10k_to_20k_rent_not_computed'],
  dtype='object')

Calculating Rent Burden

rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_burden"] = 100 * (

    rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_30_to_35_pct"] + 
    rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_35_to_40_pct"] + 
    rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_40_to_50_pct"] + 
    rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_over_50_pct"]

    ) / (
    rent["inc_10k_to_20k"] - 
    rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_not_computed"]
    )

Calculating Rent Burden

print(rent["inc_10k_to_20k_rent_burden"])

0    87.008024
Name: inc_10k_to_20k_rent_burden, dtype: float64

Calculating Rent Burden in a Loop

# Create list with income category part of column names
incomes = ["inc_under_10k", "inc_10k_to_20k", "inc_20k_to_35k", 
           "inc_35k_to_50k", "inc_50k_to_75k", "inc_75k_to_100k", 
           "inc_over_100k"]

Calculating Rent Burden in a Loop

# Create new DataFrame with just the geography name
rent_burden = rent["name"]

# Loop over the list of income categories
for income in incomes:

    # Construct column names
    rent_burden[income] =

        100 * (rent[income + "_rent_30_to_35_pct"] + 
        rent[income + "_rent_35_to_40_pct"] + 
        rent[income + "_rent_40_to_50_pct"] + 
        rent[income + "_rent_over_50_pct"]) / (
        rent[income] - rent[income + "_rent_not_computed"])

United States Rent Burden by Income Category

print(rent_burden.squeeze())

name               United States
inc_under_10k            92.1685
inc_10k_to_20k            87.008
inc_20k_to_35k           74.7448
inc_35k_to_50k           43.0434
inc_50k_to_75k           21.0937
inc_75k_to_100k          9.11853
inc_over_100k            3.14882
Name: 0, dtype: object

A barplot showing the percentage of rent burdened households for 7 income categories. As income increases, the bars decrease from 92% to 3% of households.

Let's practice!

Analyzing US Census Data in Python