California ranks No. 2 for housing costs in U.S.

There s only one place outside of California where you ll spend more of your paychecks on housing My trusty spreadsheet calculated how much typical households spend on housing expenses by reviewing a cost review from WalletHub and homeownership levels from the Census Bureau Related Articles Change is inevitable Berkeley OKs demolition of historic theater San Jose housing project will switch to affordable units Supportive housing project in Oakland pushes ahead with property deal A calamity This Bay Area city is rolling back a big tax break for affordable housing project Opinion Criminalizing homelessness won t fix our housing shortage The math shows housing expenses eat up of a typical California household budget Only Hawaii at was higher No was New York at Massachusetts at and Oregon at One big California rival Florida was No at The national median was Iowans spend the smallest share on the roof over their heads at then Kansas at and West Virginia and Oklahoma at California s other major economic competitor Texas was No at How did we get there First WalletHub says Californians who lives in their own place have the nation s second-highest ownership costs spending of their incomes on the place they own Only Hawaii at is higher No is Oregon at then Nevada and Washington at Florida is th highest at American homeowners spend of their income on house costs Iowa is the lowest at then West Virginia Kansas and Nebraska at Texas is th lowest at Next note that California tenants fare a tad better in WalletHub rent rankings with the nation s sixth-highest costs at of their income going to the landlord Topping the Golden State are New York at Hawaii at Massachusetts at Florida at and Maine at Nationally tenants typically put toward rental expenses Folks in Kansas and Iowa spend the least at followed by Wyoming at Texas is th lowest at at And conclusively To meld owner and renter costs into an overall housing expense yardstick we adjusted the aforementioned expenses using a state s homeownership rate Again ownership stats are not great for California It ranked second-worst with an average of residents living in a home they owned in - Only New York was worse at After California came Hawaii at and Nevada at Texas was seventh-lowest at Florida was th-lowest at Nationally the median ownership was with highs of West Virginia at and Delaware Mississippi and Maine at Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group He can be reached at jlansner scng com