Tag Archives: Center for Housing Policy

With the home price recovery moving along faster than income growth, many workers across the country are finding hard work is not enough to pay the bills, according to the 2013 Paycheck to Paycheck report from the Center for Housing Policy (CHP). After exploring housing affordability for mid-career professionals in travel and tourism, the report found only flight attendants could afford rent for a two-bedroom unit at fair market value in the 207 metros examined. On the other hand, housekeepers and wait staff could not afford a two-bedroom unit in any of the 207 metros.

While home affordability has reached record high levels, for renters, housing cost burdens have been steadily increasing. According to the annual Housing Landscape report from the Center for Housing Policy, 26.4 percent of working renters spent more than half of their household income on housing costs in 2011. The share is an increase from 2008 when 22.8 percent of working renters had a severe housing cost burden. CHP provided two reasons the burden of renting has grown: falling incomes and rising rental housing costs. For example, the report found the median housing cost for working renters rose nearly six percent between 2008 and 2011, yet median incomes fell more than three percent.

Inclusionary housing policies--those which either require or encourage developers to provide low-priced housing within market-rate developments--have largely survived the recent housing downturn. However, several obstacles now stand in their way, preventing them from reaching their full effectiveness, according to a recent report from the Center for Housing Policy. Major hindrances to these policies include shifts in development pattern, new restrictions regarding rental housing, and rising homeowner association fees, among others.