This state has the same amount of rental housing as it did in 1940. Between 1990 and 2000, multifamily housing has slipped from representing 26% to just 21% of all housing stock in the state.

While Pennsylvania rents are lower than in the peer states, it has more renters who pay more than 50% of their income for housing. That is 17% more than Massachusetts, which has the highest rents in the nation, and Maryland, which has the fastest rising rents in the US.

Incomes here have not kept pace with rental housing costs. In 2000, 44% of renters here and nearly one third of the workforce could not afford a two-bedroom unit without facing burdensome costs. Minimum wage earners at $5.15 per hour, or $10,712 a year, must pay 81% of their income to rent a median-priced apartment.