# How to generating a housing cost burden variable?

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-to-generating-a-housing-cost-burden-variable/3950>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [January 29, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-to-generating-a-housing-cost-burden-variable/3950 "2021-01-29T18:37:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sarah\_Crump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Sarah\_Crump](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Sarah_Crump)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-to-generating-a-housing-cost-burden-variable/3950/1 "2021-01-29T18:37:47Z")

</div>

I am interested in using the 1-year PUMS estimates to generate a rental housing cost burden variable for metros in the U.S. What would be a good method for approaching this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grace\_Cooper](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grace_cooper/32/376_2.png) [@Grace\_Cooper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Grace_Cooper)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/how-to-generating-a-housing-cost-burden-variable/3950/2 "2021-02-03T16:01:44Z")

</div>

[RENTGRS](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/RENTGRS#description_section) reports the monthly gross rent and [HHINCOME](https://usa.ipums.org/usa-action/variables/HHINCOME#description_section) reports total household income. You can capture metropolitan areas in the U.S. with the variables METAREA (available through 2011) and MET2013 (available from 2000 forward). You may be interested in this [forum post](https://forum.ipums.org/t/top-coded-monthly-gross-rent-values-seem-to-vary-more-widely-than-expected/3748) about top-codes in RENTGRS as part of calculating rent burden.