Housing and Food Now Take 47% of US Household Spending, the Most in 15 Years

American households spent almost 47% of their budgets on housing and food in 2025, the largest combined share in 15 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' annual Consumer Expenditure Survey.

Per Bloomberg, Julia Fanzeres and Jeffrey Sparshott report that rising rents, homeowner costs and beef prices drove the increase. The average family spent $1,988 more on the two categories combined than in 2024.

Housing remained the largest expense at 33.9% of total spending, the highest share since 2010 outside the 2020 pandemic jump. Shelter costs for owned and rented homes rose 8%. Food took 13%, the highest since 2011, and its share has risen every year since 2020. The food budget rose 4.6% to $10,633, faster than total spending, which rose 4.3% to $81,905. Food and housing were the only two major categories to post statistically significant increases last year.

Protein accounts for most of the food increase. Households spent $1,579 on meat, poultry, fish and eggs, 11.7% more than in 2024 and twice as much as in 2010. Those products made up about 24% of grocery spending in 2025, up from 19% in 2023, and accounted for about 95% of the increase in food-at-home spending over those two years.

Incomes did rise. Average pretax income grew 6.4% to $110,847, outpacing both inflation and spending. Bloomberg notes this helps explain the gap between improving household finances and downbeat views of the economy. Americans had more money coming in, but more of what they spent went to necessities, and affordability has become a central issue in the midterm elections.

The data also predates this year's energy shock. The survey covers 2025, before the Iran war pushed up grocery prices and utility costs in 2026. The BLS notes that survey collection was interrupted in October and November 2025 by the federal funding lapse and adjusted its weights to account for the gap.

The last time the share was this high, the cause was different. In 2009 and 2010 it peaked near 47.4% because the recession cut discretionary spending, so necessities made up more of a shrinking total. In 2025 incomes and total spending both grew, and necessities grew faster still. The pressure now comes from the prices of things households cannot defer.

That distinction matters for what higher incomes are worth in practice. Nominal gains that outpace the headline inflation rate can still leave households with less room after rent, utilities and groceries, because those costs are rising faster than the overall price index. The burden falls hardest at the bottom. Households in the lowest income quintile spent an average of $37,935 a year against $159,512 in the highest, so essentials take a larger share of a smaller budget and leave little to save or invest.

What to watch is the 2026 survey and the shelter and food components of monthly CPI. With housing supply tight and energy prices elevated since the war began, the share of household budgets going to essentials is more likely to rise than fall.