The purpose of this study was to explore housing characteristics of young single- or two-person households in the U.S. metropolitan urban areas and determinants of their housing cost burden. Total 764 single-person households, 744 two-person households and 424 households with three or more persons were selected from the 2011 American Housing Survey public-use microdata for the study based on specific sampling criteria. The major findings are as follows: (1) In comparisons with larger households, single- or two-person households were characterized to be headed by younger householders, to have less income, and to have a greater proportion of households living in central cities of metropolitan areas, renting housing units, living in smaller size units or multifamily structures; (3) housing cost of single- or two-person households were significantly less than a larger households while housing costs per unit square footage (SQFT) of single- or two-person households was significantly greater; (4) regardless of the household size, there are many household headed by young college graduates paying too much of their income for housing, and single-person households were found to have the greatest housing cost burden; and (5) a linear combination of low-income status, monthly housing costs per unit SQFT, annual household income, and unit SQFT per person was found to be most efficient to predict single- or two-person households with housing cost burden.