More households burdened in Suffolk than Nassau

We took a look at household burden yesterday, how it is defined and the percentage of burdened households on Long Island.

But are we getting better or worse, and how do we compare to other areas?

To explore those questions, let’s start with this chart:

Percentage change of burdened households for Nassau and Suffolk County, indexed to 2010

There’s a steady decline in burdened households in the past few years, starting in 2013.

While both counties have declined in a similar rate over this period of time, 43.3 percent of Suffolk County households are burdened, compared to 41 percent in Nassau County.

Compared to New York City, however, there is reason for us to be optimistic:

Percentage change of burdened households for Long Island and New York City, indexed to 2010

But –

Equally important is to see how we compare to other similar counties or regions.

Or, to phrase it differently, are we catching up to the status quo or are we leading the pack and setting an example of where to be?

Hard to say. We compare close to other counties around us, but Fairfax County is outperforming us by a very significant margin.

It is tempting to be optimistic – as the numbers show that the number of Long Island’s burdened households is trending downwards. But we have yet to look into how burdened these households are.

There is a stark difference between spending more than 50 percent and spending 30 to 40 percent of your income on household costs.

And a different picture might arise when we split this into renters, those with mortgages, and those who already own their home.