Grantee Profile
Center for Neighborhood Technology
Is this house as affordable as I think? We’ve all pondered the question at some point in our lives, but perhaps used faulty calculations to answer it. A new study and mapping tool from the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) can help.
Until now, common wisdom defined housing affordability at 30% or less of household income. But this calculation does not consider the connection between housing location and cost. Over the last several decades, affordable housing has been pushed further and further out to distant suburbs – a phenomenon known as “drive till you qualify.” This means affordable housing is most often coupled with long driving times and increased transportation costs.
In its recent study, Penny Wise, Pound Fuelish, CNT discovered that the savings families expect from lower housing costs are often eliminated by the increase in transportation expenses. Additionally, the increased dependence on driving leaves families more economically vulnerable to spikes in gas prices. For example, when gas prices peaked in 2008, families in many regions were forced to dole out an extra $3000 or more a year to meet their basic transportation needs.
So what can we do about it? Well, a first start is to be more informed. CNT has developed a new tool to provide people with a snapshot of neighborhood affordability. The Housing + Transportation (H+T) Affordability Index gives a reliable estimate for a neighborhood’s average household transportation costs, a strong move toward a “no surprises, no sticker shock” home buying or renting experience. The aim is to help people make more informed decisions about where they can afford to live, and help provide policy makers with data to develop new policies and targeted investments that can reduce transportation costs, the second highest expense for working Americans.
The H+T Index is the nation’s most comprehensive assessment of household transportation costs by location. The H+T Index is an innovative tool that analyzes transportation costs at a neighborhood level and allows users to view housing and transportation data as maps, charts and statistics for 337 metro areas, revealing the relative costs of communities within a region.
