This figure indicates how affordable housing is for renters. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guideline for affordability is that rent should consume no more than 30% of household income.

Renters in Brookline spent 32% of their household income on rent in 2017-21, a bit below the state level (34%), and similar to renters nationwide (31%). The share of household income in Brookline going to rent has fluctuated over time but was similar to 2000 when the rate was 31%.

Brookline was the second least affordable area for renters behind Everett, where the median rent consumed 34% of median income, followed by Cambridge (30%), and Arlington and Newton (both at 25%).

The multiyear 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. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.