Update: 3 County 2018 PDX Data Lookup Added. New ACS 2018 Severe Cost Burden Lookup for US, All States, and Select Oregon Geographies.

Update:
For 2018 data ONLY I have added an entry that combines cost burden data for Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. This combined data only appears in the 2018 lookup worksheet (not prior years or the raw data worksheets). To locate within the 2018 lookup worksheet scroll down through the alpha ordered county list to "THREE Portland metro counties". 
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In late December of 2018 I did a post HERE of an Excel workbook with 2017, 2106, and 2015 ACS 5 YEAR cost burden AND severe renter cost burden data. It included data and a graph for the US, all states, and select Oregon geographies. [I used 5 year data because it provided the widest ranges of geographies within the state].

I have just updated that workbook to add the latest 5 year ACS  data (2018-2014); the new version is posted in a new location HERE.  

Some changes in the new 2018 worksheet (all other worksheets remain the same as before):

1. I didn't include Oregon census tract data [it made the pull down list menu too long].
2. I expanded the data table to add some new metrics that group several income groups into two income categories; incomes below $35,000 and incomes above $75,000.
3. I added a second graph that shows the count of severe rent burdens for all the income categories, including the two new consolidated income categories.

To get results for 100+ different cost burden metrics for nearly 500 geographies requires only one step--selection of the geography from a pull down at the top of the worksheet. 

The pull down list is organized alphabetically within each geography in this order: States, Oregon metro and micro areas, Oregon counties, Oregon places, and Oregon's federal legislative districts. [I also included Clark and Skamania counties in Washington so that all counties in the Portland metro area were included]. 

For example, to find a county just pull down until you see county names (Baker+) starting to appear and they will then be organized alphabetically. Same with states, metro and micro areas, places, and congressional districts.

I have chosen to NOT password protect the workbook, so be careful to not make inadvertent selections or data entries once you download--only one selection needs to be made with a pull down [in cell D3]. It's likely that selection of some (smaller) geographies will result in error messages. This is because data used in the formulas is not available or a division by zero error occurs. If this occurs it is not an error in the formula; the data simply doesn't allow the calculation to be completed.

The workbook also includes worksheets with the raw downloaded data for each year, including margin of error information. 

Caution When Comparing to Prior 5 Year Reports
While the workbook contains worksheets with prior year 5 year data, the 5 year coverage period for each worksheet overlaps with prior years, so comparisons would have limited validity. 

Unfortunately, ACS didn't include severe rent burden [50% or higher] data in table B25074 until 2014, so a comparison next year between 2010-2014 ACS data will be valid as the new severe rent burden data will cover the non overlapping period of 2015-2019. There may be a workaround but I don't know of it.  (Of course, comparisons between two geographies for the same 5 year period are valid).

2018 Severe Cost Burden Observations, Using the Default Entry of Oregon as an Example:
The graphs pasted below show (1) severe renter cost burdens decrease dramatically as income increases and (2) that above $75,000 household income there are virtually NO severely cost burdened renters.

In Oregon during the survey period there were 571,345 renter households with known Incomes. Of those, the total renter households with severe rent burdens was 150,120 (26.3%, or 263 households per 1,000 renter households).

Renter Households with Incomes ABOVE $75,000+ [21% of households whose Income was known].

1. There were virtually NO renter households [.3%] in this income range with severe cost burdens.
2. Out of a total of 150,120 severe cost burdened renter households only 368 had incomes above $75,000+. 
3. For every 1,000 severely cost burdened renters only 20 would have incomes above $75,000.  [.2%].

Renters Households with Incomes BELOW $35,000 [44% of households whose Income was known].

1. 56% of renters in this income range had severe renter cost burdens.
2. Out of a total of 150,120 severely cost burdened renter households 140,095 had incomes below $35,000.
3. For every 1,000 severely cost burdened renters 940 [94%] had incomes BELOW $35,000.  

Comment: Triage suggests that efforts to increase housing supply should include a carve out focused on income restricted housing for the most severely rent burdened households (at low incomes). 

Conversely, increasing the supply of rental housing affordable to households with more than $75,000 income (2018 value) may provide some help via long term filtering impacts but will have close to ZERO impact on severe rent burdened renters and rates of severe rent burden. 

 
Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.