Thanks to the fact that rents have risen much faster than incomes, nearly one in three households spends more than 30% of its income on housing, and one in eight spends more than 50%, according to Harvard's Joint Centre for Housing Studies.

ECONOMIST: How should America house its poor?

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University reports that real median household incomes across all age groups under 55 have not increased since 2000.

FORBES: Dirt Poor Echo Boomers May Find Cheap Cribs In Burbs, Shun Urban Living

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard said in its 2011 report that the recession increased the pool of low-income renters at the same time competition for cheaper affordable housing units became more fierce.

WSJ: Deal of the Week: Saving Affordable Housing

Between 2001 and 2006, the number of homeowners paying more than half their income on housing rose to 8.8 million, from 6.5 million, the largest such increase in history, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

FORBES: Increasingly Affordable U.S. Housing Markets

"In the U.S., there's still a strong cultural pull toward homeownership, because in normal times it's always been seen as a way to build net worth and equity, " said Dan McCue, research manager at Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

MSN: Housing bust worst since Great Depression

The home improvement market, which includes maintenance and improvement spending of both rentals and owner-occupied units, promises to rise at an inflation-adjusted rate of 3.5% per year in the coming years, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

FORBES: One Industry Recovering From The Housing Market Collapse

One-person households have a bigger carbon footprint than joint dwellings and drive up housing costs.

ECONOMIST: Singletons

Mansfield presented her findings to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Treasury Departments' Joint Task Force on Predatory Mortgage Lending and to the House Banking Committee.

NPR: Foreclosures May Weaken Home Prices, Spending

The comment was made by Simon Hamilton who proposed the DUP motion calling on the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the DRD Roads Service to develop a joint service to facilitate more efficient cutting of grass in public spaces.

BBC: Northern Ireland Assembly

That has forced it to look to more exotic fare than in the past, including a joint venture that invests in medical offices and student housing.

FORBES: Magazine Article