Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 11:40 am
New Housing + Transportation Affordability Index Website Launches
Update! The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index has received lots of attention around the country. From bloggers to the Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal to other industry professionals, here’s what people are saying.
CNT’s new Housing + Transportation Affordability Index interactive mapping tool has just launched; the new website - http://htaindex.cnt.org - will enable planners, policy-makers, housing and transit advocates, and individuals to calculate the true costs of housing and transportation in cities across the United States.
The result of a two-year study supported by The Brookings Institution’s Urban Market Initiative, the Index is the most comprehensive housing + transit analysis to date. Utilizing United States Census data from 52 metropolitan areas, the Index analyzes data through neighborhood variables – such as household income, transit connectivity, and residential density – to determine auto ownership, transit use, and ultimately the cost of transportation as percent of income.
The traditional vision of housing affordability maintains that housing generally becomes more affordable the farther one ventures from the urban center. However, the study has found that transportation costs increase dramatically in suburban and exurban areas, due to dispersed employment, retail, and other amenities.
CNT President, Scott Bernstein explains, “The index tells an alternative story of affordability than we’ve become accustomed to hearing. The real estate pages may list 2- and 3-bedroom homes for under $175,000 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.”
Bernstein and CNT Director of Geography, Research and Information, Peter Haas, Ph.D., presented these findings to the press and officially launched the interactive mapping website at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
Download the Press Release here.
Download the Fact Sheet here.
Download Fact Sheets for eight select cities here.
Use the new H + T interactive mapping website here.
Housing and Transportation Affordability Index
The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, developed through CNT’s partnership in the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing. The traditional measure of affordability used by planners, lenders, and most consumers recommends that housing should be less than 30 percent of income. The Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, in contrast, takes into account not just the cost of housing, but the costs of housing and transportation. Click on the link at left to read the brief published by the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program that describes the method behind the Index and the application of thie pilot version of the tool in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region.
The Index has received much attention from policy makers for its benefits to planners and TOD advocates and is already being used for additional research (described below). Work is underway to develop the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index for 50 metropolitan areas. The index results will be available through an interactive look-up and mapping website.
View this report: The Affordability Index: A New Tool for Measuring the True Affordability of a Housing Choice. (.pdf)
A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families
This study presents, for the first time, the combined housing and transportation cost burdens of households, with a focus on working families at the neighborhood level in 28 metropolitan areas. It also provides an overview of where working families live in each of the areas and how their location decisions affect their commute times and costs. The study reveals that low- to moderate-income working families are finding that as they move further from work, cities, and amenities to afford housing they end up spending as much, or more, on transportation costs, negating what they are saving on housing.
View this report: A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families (.pdf)
Preserving and Promoting Diverse Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods
Presented at the November, 2006 Rail~volution conference in Chicago, this study of 41 transit regions in the U.S. highlights data on neighborhoods near transit today and the demand for such neighborhoods by 2030. The report reveals that diversity—both economically and racially—is greater in transit-served neighborhoods than in their surrounding neighborhoods and overall regions. The findings suggest that the creation and preservation of mixed-income housing, and mixed-race and mixed-use neighborhoods near transit would respond to a growing demand for housing near transit while also providing economic and environmental benefits to households, cities, and regions.
View this report: Preserving and Promoting Diverse Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods (.pdf)
Paved Over; Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development
Paved Over builds off of CNT’s previous research by highlighting specific development opportunities in the Chicago area that respond to the need for more affordable housing and the desire for more housing near transit. The study looks at parking lots near transit in nine communities in the region and compares typical costs to support the parking lots as they are today with revenue that could be generated from the redevelopment of some portion of the lots for a mix of uses. Researchers created site-specific development scenarios for the Metra parking lots as long-range alternatives to the surface parking lots that resulted in no net loss of parking spaces. Estimates for the scenarios indicate that collectively the parking lots could generate 1,188 new residential units and at least 167,000 square feet of new commercial space. Each of the nine communities could benefit from hundreds of thousands of dollars of property tax revenue each year and the region and its households would benefit from having more housing near transit.
View this report: Paved Over; Surface Parking Lots of Opportunities for Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development (.pdf)
Uncovering the Hidden Assets of Established Communities
CNT and the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association partnered with four municipalities in the suburbs of south Cook County to look at H+T values at a community level. All four towns were shown to offer good value to current households and strong opportunity to maximize some under-utilized assets. The communities have already considered transit-oriented development, walkable communities and the reconfiguration of parking at commuter rail stations as potential elements of new compact, mixed-use developments. All four towns stand to improve on existing H+T values as they implement their station area plans. The four reports can be found at: