Forget years of falling prices, recent record low mortgage rates, and tax credits that help offset the cost of buying a home.

What may appear to be favorable market conditions for putting a roof over your head hasn't been enough to offset the high cost of housing for tens of millions of Americans.

From 2005 to 2008, more households have been added to the ranks of those that spend more than 30 percent or more of their income on housing and households that can least afford the extra cost suffer most, according to "Housing Affordability Trends for Working Households" a new report from the Center for Housing Policy.

Between 2005 and 2008:

• The share of all U.S. households with a "severe housing cost burden" rose from 14 to 15 percent. Households with a severe housing cost burden are those that spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing costs, including utilities.

• The share of all U.S. households with a "moderate housing cost burden" rose from 18 to 19 percent. Households with a moderate housing cost burdens spend 31 percent to 50 percent of their income on housing.

• The share of all "working households" with a severe housing cost burden increased from 20 to 21 percent over the three year period. A working household is one in which members combined to work at least 20 hours per week and on average have a total income at or below 120 percent of their area's median income. Working households account for more than 47 million households and 40 percent of the nation's population.

• The share of working home owners with a severe housing cost burden rose the most, from 18 to 20 percent, while working renters' numbers remained at 22 percent.

Working households often provide essential services the nation relies upon, including work in schools, public safety, retail sales and food service, among other blue and pink collar service industries.

The report said the increase in the number of housing cost burdened households was due largely to higher utility costs which rose by nearly 23 percent, or more than double the rate of inflation.

Also, most homeowners have not moved since the housing crisis started so they have not benefited from lower prices, but many have suffered interest rate adjustments that have resulted in higher mortgage payments.

Reduced employment and unemployment has also taken a toll.

Now, rising home prices could further take a toll on affordability.

Download Housing Affordability Trends for Working Households.

Published: January 21, 2010

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a 30-year career in old-school journalism into a digital-age news service offering editorial content and related consulting services. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based content provider specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and consulting. An open house for news that really hits home, the DeadlineNews Group includes the umbrella website DeadlineNews.com the flagship blog Deadline Newsroom, and three Examiner.com outposts -- Real Estate News Examiner; Consumer News Examiner; and Offbeat News Examiner. Along with a decade of work here with Realty Times, Perkins also provides content for Silicon Valley based ERate.com and the new AOLNews.com, where now "You've got news....that really hits home." His current work can also be found in Californian publications, the San Jose Mercury News, San Francisco's The Registry and the Salinas Californian. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News, before launching DeadlineNews Group. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Nolo.com among more than four dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins served as chief editorial consultant for "Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home."