In Florida, the cost of homeownership rose at roughly double the rate of the nation as a whole over the past five years. The Census Bureau study finds that state residents with a mortgage spent an average of 22.1 percent of their incomes on housing expenses compared to 19.6 percent five years earlier. Nationally, homeowners with a mortgage spent 20.9 percent of their incomes. In the ranking of states comparing the portion of household income spent on housing expenses, Florida ranked No. 10. The median cost of total housing expenses in Florida, $1,247, still ranked below the national median, but Floridians had a higher rate of growth for housing expenses, rising from No. 26 to No. 20 on the ranking of states' median cost for housing expenses.
