Thread by @aaronsojourner

Lots of Americans worried about their ability to pay for housing.

34% of renters report no confidence or slight confidence in their own ability to pay rent next month, in the week ending July 21.

Was 31% a month ago (6/23 week). Data @uscensusbureau #HouseholdPulseSurvey

Huge shares of renters lack confidence in ability to pay August rent in Southern states, OK, NE, NV, WV, NY, NJ, and CT.

Averaging over the last 2 weeks to reduce noise changes map a bit but still very high levels of concern.

It's not just renters. About 15% of American households that owe a mortgage each month have slight or no confidence in their ability to make their August payment.

Here's the rate by state averaged over the 2 weeks ending July 21. Again, lots of concern in the South.

Compare the national share of mortgage payers with no or slight confidence to similar weeks in prior months

Rate: week ending
15.3%: July 21
13.6%: June 23
14.3%: May 19

Among households that regularly owe rent or mortgage:

55% have experienced employment income loss since 3/3

38% expect losses in the next 4 weeks

23% lack confidence can make Aug housing payment

31% can't control worry most days

Employment-income loss experiences and expectations and lack of confidence to pay for August housing are prevalent among all race and ethnicity groups but especially Black and Hispanic Americans.

Worry shows less disparity, so not displayed to reduce complexity.

Employment-income loss experiences and expectations are prevalent among all income groups but much more so among those with lower incomes in 2019.

Lack of confidence to pay for August housing is not very prevalent among highest-income, perhaps due to more savings & credit.

56% of working-age households had an employment-income loss since March.

For them, over 1 in 4 use unemployment insurance for weekly expenses & most will struggle when they lose the $600/week enhanced federal insurance payment.

5 Americans are unemployed for every open job.

All this analysis relies on @uscensusbureau #HouseholdPulseSurvey, a pilot product that only had enough $ to run to this week.

Senator @brianschatz & @censusproject are calling to continue. Learn more & contact your Congresspeople to #FundPulseSurveys.

https://twitter.com/aaronsojourner/status/1287883190837760002

People want to pay their mortgages and stay in their homes. But loss of income can force defaults, evictions, and deeper health and economic crisis. See evidence here:

https://twitter.com/p_ganong/status/1288287398107975680