In the St. Cloud area, about 14% of area households, or one in seven, paid more than half of their income for housing.  At this level of housing cost burden, families often must make difficult choices between paying for housing and other necessities such as transportation, food, and prescription medicines. This is slightly higher than the Minnesota average of 13.5%. Note that there is some fluctuation in annual American Community Survey data due to relatively high margins of error for metro areas the size of St. Cloud.

In 2009, about the same number of owners as renters experienced this extreme cost burden, even though about 72% of households in St. Cloud own their homes. The burden falls especially heavily on lower-income area residents. Over half (54%) of households earning less than $50,000 per year paid more than they could comfortably afford for housing, according to HUD guidelines, compared to about 10% of households with incomes above $50,000 in 2009.

Median Household Income, 2009: $48,038

Median Renter Household Income, 2009: $24,122 

The St. Cloud area saw an increase in the number of homeless people between 2006 and 2009, though not as many as were counted in 2003 in the area. Statewide, homelessness increased dramatically from 2006 to 2009. The number of foreclosures in the St. Cloud area, however, has increased each year since 2005.

Technical information on these charts can be found here.