The federal government considers 30% of income a threshold for affordable housing. People paying more than 30% are considered to be cost-burdened.

In 2014-18, 30% of units in the region had residents whose housing costs were above the affordability threshold, a bit below the national level of 32% and much lower than the state level of 39%. The region's rate declined slightly since 2009-13 (2 percentage points). A much larger share of units in the City of Rochester - 45% - had residents whose housing costs were above affordable levels. This was higher than any county in the region and well above Geneva (36%), Batavia (31%) and Canandaigua (27%). Housing cost burden at the county level was lowest in Wyoming (21%) and highest in Monroe (32%).

Multi-year figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are expected to be released in the fourth quarter.