States Where People Spend the Most & Least on Housing 

From Wallet Hub, April 22, 2026

The cost of buying a home has surged in recent years, far outpacing inflation and putting homeownership out of reach for many Americans. Even for those who can manage high mortgage payments, additional housing expenses like costly utility bills can place a significant strain on their budgets.

To highlight where Americans spend the most and least on housing, WalletHub analyzed mortgage and home energy payments across all 50 states. We then combined these costs and compared them with each state’s median household income.

Considering how costly housing is, it’s more important than ever to have good budgeting skills. Housing costs should be one of the first things you add to your budget, since they are “needs,” but you’ll also need to be flexible about how much you spend on other things.

Hawaii: Where People Spend the Most

People in Hawaii spend the most on housing as a percentage of their income. The average Hawaii resident shells out 50% of their income between monthly mortgage payments and home energy costs. For comparison, Iowa residents only spend an average of around 17% of their income on housing costs.

Hawaii residents actually have the fourth-highest median household income in the country, at $100,389. However, housing is so expensive in the state that people end up spending a disproportionate amount of their income on it.

Hawaii has both the most-expensive mortgage (principal and interest) payments and the highest home energy costs in the country, solidifying its rank as the costliest state in our study.

For Hawaii homeowners, the cost of housing as a share of median monthly household income is 50.02%.  For Hawaii renters, it is 62.52%.  Both figures are the highest in the USA.

Methodology

In order to determine the states that spend the most and least on housing, WalletHub analyzed the prices of three components, including the costs of rent, mortgage and home energy, across the 50 states.

We summed up the individual costs of the components and adjusted the resulting figure to the median monthly income in each state, then used these results to rank-order our sample.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected as of March 25, 2026 from the Council for Community and Economic Research, the U.S. Census Bureau, Zillow, and WalletHub research.