Last week, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual Gap Report, which details the nationwide shortage of more than 7 million affordable rental homes. We dug into the Virginia-specific data included in the new report.
Virginia’s Shortage of Affordable Rental Homes
Around the nation, there are zero states or major metropolitan areas that have an adequate supply of homes that are available – and affordable – to tenants in the lowest income brackets. In Virginia, NLIHC researchers found that there are only 93 affordable rental units available for every 100 low-income tenant households. The number of affordable rental homes drops as income decreases: for every 100 extremely low-income renters, there are only 35 available, affordable homes across the Commonwealth.
Households with lower incomes are more likely to be cost-burdened when it comes to their housing expenses. In Virginia, nearly eight in ten extremely low-income renters (<30% AMI) are housing cost-burdened – compared to just 24% of households earning between 81-100% AMI.
Defining Key Terms
Area Median Income, or AMI, is the midpoint for household earnings in a particular region. In other words, half of an area’s residents bring in more than the AMI – and about half of them earn less. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publishes annual data on area median incomes for each county (and independent city) in the Commonwealth. In 2025, area median incomes in our state ranged from $163,900 in parts of Northern Virginia to $53,100 in Buchanan County.
HUD classifies households receiving below 80% AMI as “low-income.” Households earning below 50% AMI are considered to be “very low-income,” and those making 30% AMI or less are said to be “extremely low-income.”
Households who spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs (including rent and utilities) are said to be housing cost-burdened. Families and individuals who are cost-burdened are more likely to experience housing instability. For many of these renters, a relatively minor emergency – such as an unexpected car repair, a large medical bill, or missing a few days of work to care for a sick family member – can lead to a full-blown housing crisis.
