H+T News
Friday, March 22nd, 2013
Residential real estate sales prices for properties located near transit are healthier and more resilient than in the broader metropolitan region. That’s the conclusion of The New Real Estate Mantra: Location Near Public Transportation, written by CNT and commissioned by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Although residential real estate prices dropped during the recession in the five regions studied (2006 to 2011 in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, and San Francisco), average sales prices for residential properties within walking distance of a heavy rail, light rail, commuter rail, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) station outperformed the region by an average of 42 percent.
In Boston, transit-served areas (transit sheds) outperformed the region by a staggering 129 percent. In Chicago, home values in transit served areas performed 30 percent better than the region; in San Francisco, 37 percent; Minneapolis-St Paul, 48 percent; and in Phoenix 37 percent.
Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Location efficiency, Transit-Oriented Development, Transportation and Community Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
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| Cover image from Losing Ground: The Struggle of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation |
Conventional wisdom holds that metro areas like New York, San Francisco, Boston and D.C. are the most expensive places to live for average families. After all, these traditionally upmarket cities have some of the highest housing costs in the nation. But conventional wisdom is the name given to a popular idea about to be debunked; housing costs are just one part of this story. A new report from the Center for Housing Policy and CNT draws attention to the other, often hidden, factors that contribute to a growing cost of place for American households. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Monday, July 16th, 2012
CNT continues to engage municipal decision makers in discussing the benefits of using the Housing and Transportation (H+T) Affordability Index to provide residents with greater overall affordability by improving connections between housing and transportation planning and policy. On June 14th the National League of Cities (NLC) invited CNT’s Stefanie Shull to speak about, “Using the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index: Nuts and Bolts for Cities.” Shull’s presentation showed how the H+T Index can be used in a variety of applications, from public outreach to performance evaluation to resource allocation. CNT looks forward to strengthening the partnership formed at this event, and to continuing to help communities create strategies for affordable and livable neighborhoods.
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
CNT’s H+T Index reveals the high cost of transportation in nearly 900 regions across the country
CNT has just released the latest version of the Housing + Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index, using the most up-to-date Census data. While this is exciting news for those who have used the Index in the past, the news on affordability isn’t so bright.
Most places are unaffordable when it comes to combined housing and transportation costs. 72% of American communities are unaffordable for typical regional households when transportation costs—the second largest expense in a family budget—are considered along with housing costs. Under the traditional definition of housing affordability, where a rent or mortgage payment consumes no more than 30 percent of household income, three out of four (76 percent) US communities are considered “affordable” to the regional typical household making their area’s median income. However, under an expanded definition of affordability, where housing and transportation costs consume no more than 45 percent of income, the number of affordable communities decreases to 28 percent, resulting in a loss of 86,000 neighborhoods that are within reach for a typical family. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | 3 Comments »
Thursday, February 16th, 2012
With gas prices already setting records, Congress threatening to cut mass transit funding, and the Chicago region arguably losing its competitive edge, CNT has released a call to action that presents a new vision for building economic prosperity in the Chicago region with an analysis that identifies place-based transportation and community development investments that would reinvigorate economic growth.
Prospering in Place builds on the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s visionary GO TO 2040 plan, translating that blueprint into a detailed framework that prioritizes specific places and projects that connect people to jobs. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
An analysis by CNT of the Chicago region’s affordable housing developments has found that some are not very affordable when transportation costs are considered. Typical transportation costs, the second largest expense in a household budget, ranged from $750 per month in many Chicago neighborhoods with affordable housing units to more than $1,000 in more distant suburbs. The report also found that suburban Cook County, which has comparatively low transportation costs, has fewer affordable housing units compared with the city of Chicago and the region’s collar counties. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
Although housing and transportation costs are currently affordable to most residents of Northwest Arkansas, high transportation costs and a growing demand for housing in walkable, centrally located neighborhoods are putting pressure on the region’s economic development efforts. That’s according to a new CNT report whose analysis of four Arkansas cities—Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, and Springdale—is based on US Census data and 23 interviews with regional stakeholders. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just announced that it has awarded a two-year contract to Manhattan Strategies Group (MSG) and subcontractor CNT to create a national housing and transportation affordability index.
“Affordability is much more than just paying the mortgage, it involves other costs like transportation, gas, and utilities,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan in a press release. “The availability of a national affordability index will provide consumers better information about the true costs of a home by accounting for that housing’s proximity to jobs, schools and other services. Our goal with the creation of this housing and transportation index is to provide American families with a tool that can help them save money and have a better understanding of their expenses and household budget.”
As a subcontractor, CNT will use its years of experience in creating the Housing + Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index (and Abogo®) to assist MSG and HUD in exploring how the agency can incorporate this sort of metric into its work.
Click here to read the HUD press release in full.
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
The District of Columbia’s Office of Planning and CNT have released a new study that customizes CNT’s H+T Index with localized data to examine how neighborhood characteristics across the region affect household transportation costs. The CNT study found that average household transportation costs in the DC region ranged from $8,500 to as much as $25,000 per year for a typical household. Actual costs can be even lower when the neighborhood enables the residents to live without owning a car. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
More than 200 planners, city officials, and other members of the American Planning Association (APA) from around the country joined presenters from CNT recently for a webinar showcasing current applications of the Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index in the planning field. The webinar was part of the APA’s monthly webcast series. The presentation, delivered by CNT’s own Maria Choca-Urban, Peter Haas, and Stephanie Morse, detailed why and how the Index was developed, described how different communities are using it, and provided a demonstration of the H+T Index website. Read more »
Posted in Featured Portfolio News, H+T, Transportation and Community Development | No Comments »
