Americans' Spending on Shelter and Food Soars to Historic Levels in 2025

06 November 2026

In 2025, Americans devoted nearly half their annual spending to housing and food, a historic peak not seen in 15 years. Housing and food together accounted for 46.9% of average household expenditures, up from 45.9% in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Housing alone cost Americans $27,790 on average, while food consumed $10,633 of budgets. With a total average spending of $81,905, these essential expenses ate up nearly two-thirds of the money that households had left to spend on everything else, from transportation to savings to discretionary purchases.

The numbers behind the squeeze

Dig into the details and you see just how severely U.S. households have been squeezed by the surge in shelter and sustenance costs in recent years. The combined share of housing and food rose 1% over 2024, but the acceleration in housing costs has really ratcheted up the pressure. Americans increased their housing outlays 5.8% in 2025, outpacing overall inflation, and paid 10.8% more to rent and 7.3% more for owned dwellings.

Similarly, climbing food prices have crimped Americans' buying power. The average food expenditure rose 4.6% over 2024, with meat, poultry, fish, and eggs alone surging 11.7%. Those shifts helped lift food's share of the household budget from 12.9% to 13%, adding to the pinch on non-food consumption. The end result? 33.9% of total spending went to putting a roof over families' heads and food on their plates.

What is driving the increase

Soaring housing and food costs have strained household budgets. Americans increased their housing outlays 5.8% in 2025, far exceeding general inflation. Renters paid 10.8% more, while owners' costs rose 7.3%. Food costs also climbed, with a 4.6% rise in 2025, a jump in large part driven by an 11.7% leap in meat, poultry, fish, and eggs. Those price ratios aren't dropping anytime soon.

Why it matters for households

The math is stark. Americans now pour 46.9% of their total spending into housing and food, monuments to the inescapable costs of keeping one's family fed and housed. That's up from 45.9% in 2024. Contrast those bloated shares with the other major spending categories in the typical home, and the picture grows even grimmer. Transportation and health each absorbed 12.4% of spending in 2025, with nothing else breaking 10%. Savings, charities, vacation - it all gets squeezed as necessities consume Americans' disposable income.

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Even if housing and food are straining households, not everybody struggles equally. Only 3% of adults received federal housing assistance in 2021-22, according to the Federal Reserve, yet 16% tapped food aid programs. One reason: housing consumes far more of the average budget. Georgetown figures show 39% of households with housing burdens of 30% or more of income, an affordability limit for the neediest Americans.

Behold the Profound Implications

The implications are clear, indeed sobering, for U.S. households, and most of all for those below the median income. Upward of 60% of families, Georgetown says, face heavy housing burdens. That leaves freedom to buy little else and forces big budget tradeoffs. Parents visit food banks. Children go without healthcare. Households cut back on utilities. With essential expenses rising, non-essentials get cut, and the lower you start, the more acute the pain.

That future awaits 7 in 10 Americans, Georgetown warns, as it updates its Basic Needs budget. Would you call that convincing?