Housing Affordability Study
The average two-bedroom apartment became less affordable in 2008, compared with 2007, in all of the Florida metropolitan areas studied in the report “Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America,” by the Center for Housing Policy.
There are several possible explanations, but Maya Brennan, research associate for the center, said that one seems particularly likely: “The number of foreclosures in Florida is pushing homeowners into the rental market.” Read the report.
Because demand has risen for apartments in the area, rents have gone up. Rents seem to be on the rise in other parts of the country too. “Overall, it looks like rents have been on a slight increase,” Brennan said.
Meanwhile, the fall in home prices has made homeownership more affordable for many Americans, according to the report. On a national basis, it takes a little more than $60,000 a year to afford the median priced home, Brennan said. But markets vary: For instance, in Youngstown, Ohio, it only takes an income of about $24,000 a year to afford the median home, while in San Francisco, it takes an annual income of $187,000, she said.
But often “where areas look affordable on paper, we may have unemployment issues,” she said. Home prices in Detroit and Youngstown may be low, for example, but affordable markets like those “we’ve seen in the news as being hit hard by downsizings and plant closings.”…Read More
