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LOS ANGELES - Californians have the nation's highest home values but are stretching further than people in most other parts of the country to meet their high mortgage payments, according to Census data released Tuesday.

The numbers reveal a trend that isn't surprising, said Dowell Myers, a University of Southern California professor of urban planning and policy: Californians are willing to sacrifice for what they perceive to be a good investment, and so far soaring home prices are helping them gain equity in those investments.

"Californians have more equity because houses have appreciated faster," Myers said. "The bad news is we're stretching ourselves to make these investments."

Though Californians' median household income is only the ninth-highest in the country, homeowners are paying the second-highest monthly housing costs -- $1,733 compared to $1,847 in New Jersey, the state with the fifth-highest median home values.

New Jersey residents don't have to stretch as far to make their mortgage payments, however. They have the highest median household income in the country -- $61,359 compared to California's $51,185.

The disparity between California's household incomes and housing costs has given the state the nation's highest percentage of homeowners who spend at least 30 percent of their income on housing costs.

Just over 44 percent of California mortgage holders spend at least 30 percent on their mortgages, compared to 32.4 percent of mortgage holders nationwide.

What justifies the high costs in the minds of home owners are rapidly appreciating home values. Golden State homes have median home values of $391,102 -- more than double the national median of $151,366.

Home values in California climbed about 17 percent from $334,426 in 2003. Nationally, the median home price rose about 2.7 percent from $147,275 in 2003.

But those high prices have shut out many buyers. At 58.6 percent, the state has the third-lowest rate in the country of owner-occupied homes.

The numbers were released as part of the American Community Survey, a questionnaire that provides in-depth data on cities and covers about 800,000 households. It also said the percentage of Californians living in poverty was 13.3 percent, just above the national average of 13.1 percent. California's poverty rate was the 20th-highest in the nation, according to the survey.