Roughly 1-in-5 California households have housing expenses gobbling up more than half of their incomes. Last year, California had 2.8 million households in all kinds of living arrangements where housing expenses exceeded 50% of their income. Sadly, California is also tops for suffocating rental costs, with 1.6 million extremely burdened households in 2024. The math shows 27% of California renters are suffering this extreme financial stress. Yet the high financial strains add up to 1.1 million California households paying more than half their income to own, also tops among the states.