Glossary · Financial

House Poor

When housing eats too much of your income.

Definition

House poor describes homeowners spending so much on housing that little remains for savings, retirement, or discretionary expenses — typically when PITI exceeds 35% of gross income.

How SalaryScopePro uses this term

We surface house poor across salary results, occupation pages, city pages, and Premium Reports — with consistent definitions and methodology. See methodology and data sources for how the underlying numbers are computed.