How to Save Gas with ‘Real’ Affordable Housing
When is a housing bargain not a bargain? When you add in the costs of getting from home to work, school, the stores and elsewhere.
Seems logical, right? But knowing how your transportation costs can affect your decision on where to live isn’t easy. Fortunately, along comes a new online tool that makes it considerably easier.
The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index lets you see which parts of the U.S. are truly affordable when you factor in both housing and transportation costs. The index lets you zoom in and explore 52 metropolitan areas across the country and, to be honest, it’s both fascinating and a little addictive.
Go to the index’s results for the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, for example, and you’ll see the outlying regions — the suburbs and exurbs — are the most affordable when considering housing costs alone. Switch to a view that shows affordability when both housing and transportation costs are factored in, and the picture is almost entirely reversed. Many of those “reasonably priced” suburbs, it turns out, have housing-transportation costs that eat up 48 percent or more of the region’s median income.
Cooler still is the index’s “goal for affordability” tool. When you highlight that choice for a region, you’ll see in stark teals (less affordable) vs. yellows (more affordable) which areas let you keep housing and travel expenses below 45 percent of median income.
The index was developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in partnership with The Brookings Institution.
“The index tells an alternative story of affordability than we’ve become accustomed to hearing,” said Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology. “The real estate pages may list 2- and 3-bedroom homes for under $150,000 in suburban communities. That sounds affordable, right? But once you factor in transportation costs, the bargain goes away. Transportation costs can be as much or more than housing costs. The index protects consumers by divulging those costs and helps planners and decision-makers work toward providing truly affordable housing.”
Check out the index yourself to see how your area measures in true affordability. I bet you’ll discover it gives a whole new, greener meaning to the old real-estate cliche of “location, location, location.”
[...] How to Save Gas with ‘Real’ Affordable Housing EcoLocalizer – April 30, 2008 New Web Site Studies Atlanta’s Housing and Transportation Affordability Atlanta Journal-Constitution – April 29, 2008 The H+T Affordability Index – CNT Releases New Mapping Tool Reconnecting America – April 29, 2008 True Housing Affordability Chicago Christian Industrial League – April 29, 2008 Map Housing & Transportation Costs for Your Area Active Rain Real Estate Network – April 28, 2008 Value-Added Housing Costs MetaFilter – April 28, 2008 Color By Numbers: Site Maps Affordability of Areas by Transportation+Housing Costs In Transition – April 24, 2008 Housing+Transportation Affordability Index in Columbus The Walker Evans Effect – April 24, 2008 Housing+Transportation Affordability Index XING Columbus – April 24, 2008 New Housing+Transportation Affordability Index Website Launches Resource Shelf – April 24, 2008 The Connection in California Between Sprawl and Mortgage Foreclosures California Progress Report – April 23, 2008 Add Driving to Home Cost Beautiful City – April 23, 2008 Green Monday Bob Giloth – April 22, 2008 Housing and Transportation Affordability Index Smart Growth Online – April 22, 2008 The Myth of Suburban Affordability Matt’s Madly Musings – April 22, 2008 Housing Plus Transportation Affordability Index Hyde Park Urbanist – April 22, 2008 CNT Launches Affordability Index Chicago Visions – April 22, 2008 Study Says DFW Area Suburbanites Save on Housing but Pay More for Transportation Star-Telegram.com – April 21, 2008 Smart Growth America Pin the Tail – April 21, 2008 How Location Affects Home Affordability, Illustrated Switchboard from NRDC – April 21, 2008 (Transportation Costs) x (Housing Costs) x (Mortgage Rate Increases) = Daiyanu! 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American Prospect – April 11, 2008 Housing+Transportation Affordability Index Seattle Transit Blog – April 11, 2008 Train Could Bring Riches MaineBiz Online – April 10, 2008 New Web Site Factors Transportation Costs Into Housing Affordability Pittsburgh Business Times – April 10, 2008 Measuring the True Cost of Housing: Location, Location, Location Smart Growth Around America – April 10, 2008 The True Cost of “Affordable” Suburban Housing The Stranger – April 10, 2008 Real Affordability in Seattle Price Tags – April 10, 2008 Study: Downeaster Train an Economic Engine for Maine, NH BostonHerald.com – April 10, 2008 Escape to the Suburbs? Not if You’re Looking to Save Money on Housing Medill Reports – April 10, 2008 The Affordability Index is Online The Overhead Wire – April 10, 2008 Cut the Electric Bill Without Cutting the Comfort Medill Reports – April 10, 2008 Train’s Economic Benefits Studied WCAX.com – April 10, 2008 Moving Beyond “Drive Until You Qualify” The Ground Floor – April 9, 2008 The Geography of the Foreclosure Crisis CEOs for Cities – April 3, 2008 Housing Transit Costs are All About Location, Location, Location WurfWhile – April 2, 2008 The Burden of Living in Outlying Areas Chicago Tribune – April 1, 2008 Botched Vote Extends Commuters’ Pain, Frustration – New Online Map Sings the Blues Livable Communities Coalition E-News – April 1, 2008 [...]
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