Lots of folks over 65 are spending a lot on housing.

The Census has a nice tool that allows one to map American Community Survey data by counties (at least counties with sufficient population to develop estimates based on samples).  I drew two today.  This first one is the share of those renters over the age of 65 who pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent.

The second one is the share of those owners over the age of 65 who spend more than 30 percent of their income on homeowning.

The picture for elderly renters is pretty grim: in most counties that are mapped 45 percent or more are spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent.  So one may take a small amount of comfort in the fact that the 78 percent of those over 65 are homeowners.  But in the median county mapped here,  a quarter of those over the age of 65 pay more than 30 percent on housing cost.  This is because such people have either not paid off their mortgage, or have high property taxes.

Altogether, about 55 percent of those 22 percent of the 65+ households who rent pay more than 30 percent of their income in rent, and 26 percent of the 78 percent who own pay more.  This means nearly 1/3 of those over the age of 65 live in an unaffordable house.

It is hard to imagine things getting better.  The old population is growing quickly--the very old population is growing even more quickly.  As people age, their incomes fall, so absent falling housing costs, the share that will be pressured by housing costs will increase in the years to come.