Housing Cost Trends

From: HUD USER News
 
Public policy focuses on the ability of families to
acquire safe and sanitary housing in decent
neighborhoods, and to have sufficient income left over
to purchase other essential goods and services. Over
time, policy analysts have come to use "30 percent" as
a rough standard to assess the affordability of
housing for American families. This rule-of-thumb
ratio of housing expenditure to household income
suggests that households who pay more than 30 percent
of their income for housing may be forced to forego
other important needs.
 
Trends in Housing Costs: 1985-2005 and the 30-Percent-
of-Income Standard, a recent report published by HUD's
Office of Policy Development and Research, looks at
the adequacy of the standard, while testing
alternative methods of evaluating this question. This
study also explores trends in the components of
housing cost relative to income for owners with
mortgages, owners without mortgages, and renters,
respectively.
 
The report is available as a free download
at www.huduser.gov/portal/publications/affhsg/trends_hsg_cost.html.
 
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