Full Citation

Title: Trends in Housing Affordability in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: 1980 to 2010

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2012

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Abstract: This paper examines the housing affordability conditions of the low and moderate income rental households in the United States between 1980 and 2010. Using Integrated Public Use Census Microdata Samples (IPUMS) 5% sample data, we create income and rent distribution for households separately for each metropolitan statistical area (MSA), and match the two distributions by using a unique 'matching technique' so that the lowest-household income is matched with the lowest-rent and so on. The distribution clearly shows that severe housing affordability problem exists at the bottom of the income distribution in each MSA. We define low and moderate income renters as households with 60% and 80% of area median income respectively and construct the affordability indexes for these income groups. The findings indicate that at the national and regional levels, severe and growing housing affordability problem exists for both the income groups. However, the severity is much more prominent for the low income renter group. Almost 4 out of 5 renters from the low income group are paying more than 30% of their income on rent. At the MSA level, affordability is found to be lowest in the large metro areas such as California, Florida, and New York. JEL Classification: R11, R23, R40, H31

Url: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2250621

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Authors: Neogi, Ranjni; Chatterjee, Boishampayan

Publisher: Clark University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Housing and Segregation

Countries: United States