As home prices continue to rise throughout most of the country, increasing numbers of Americans are choosing to rent, rather than buy, their dwelling. At the same time, rising rents and a lack of low-income rental units have created a perfect storm whereby more and more people are finding themselves devoting larger and larger portions of their paycheck to housing costs. As a result, a record-setting 21.3 million Americans spent more than 30% of their income on rent in 2014, while a staggering 11 million spent more than half. Financial experts generally consider a healthy budget as having up to 30% of income dedicated to housing, meaning that those spending more than 30% are labeled "cost-burdened".