UNSUPPORTABLE AFFORDABLE HOUSING

Subj: Unsupportable Affordable Housing
Date: 12/17/2005 4:54:58 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: tenant@tenant.net
To: HDFCCentral@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)

This report measures and compares the impact of unaffordability across the
country. The San Francisco metropolitan area tops the list along with
Westchester County, NY. New York City, while having strong measures of
unaffordability, is not in the top tier. New York state, however, is the
fifth most expensive.

Measures of unaffordability in this report relate directly to level of
wages and expenses to maintain properties, which have a large roll in
setting the level of rent.

However the report does not measure -- or attempt to assess -- the impact
of the real estate market in certain jurisdictions. Areas such as New York
City will experience sharp increases of unaffordability for reasons
unrelated to expenses (utilities, maintenance, financing costs, taxes,
etc.). Market forces and development pressures, exacerbated by rezonings,
weakening of housing and building regulations, and secondary displacement
forces created by so-called Inclusionary Housing programs -- arguably have
greater impact on housing costs and unaffordability than traditional factors.

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USA 12 13 15
Unsupportable Affordable Housing
Peter Slatin
The Slatin Report

Indexes offering relatively good news about consumer sentiment or economic
growth are proliferating. But an index that debuted in 1998 was released
Tuesday that offers something more basic to chew on, especially as we mull
the latest bump in short-term interest rates from the Federal Reserve and
the shape and size of a housing bubble..

The National Low-Income Housing Coalition came out with its aptly named
index, Out of Reach 2005. It calculates, according to the NLIHC, "the
hourly wage that someone must earn - working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a
year - to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private local housing
market in every state, metropolitan area and county in the country."

The dollar figure the NLIHC came up with, which they call the housing wage,
is $15.78 an hour, up from $15.37 an hour in 2004 and $15.21 in 2003.

NLIHC lays the blame "for much of the increase in renter housing costs" on
what it says was a 13%-plus rise in housing-related fuel and utitily costs
last year. With fuel costs up significantly, that number will likely be
even harsher in the next index..

The impact of increasing fuel costs underscores what NLIHC says is an
unfortunate element of this year's report: For the first time, NLIHC's data
shows that a full-time worker at minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom
apartment anywhere in the U.S. And the report notes that a family with two
full-time workers earning federal minimum wage would make just $21,424,
significantly less than the $32,822 annually they would need to afford a
modest two-bedroom apartment.

According to the report, 81% of American family renters live in counties
where a two full-time minimum-wage workers will be unable to afford a
two-bedroom apartment.

Not surprisingly, the most expensive city in the nation for renters: San
Francisco. The highest-cost state: Hawaii. California, Massachusetts, New
Jersey and New York round out the top five states.

To see the full list of state rankings, go to:
http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/features/rankstable.pdf
For state ranks based on two-bedroom housing wage, New York $19.73

For a list of the least affordable jurisdictions, go to:
http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/features/leastaffordabletable.pdf

To read the full report, go to
http://www.nlihc.org/oor2005/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Email: tenant@tenant.net
Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
activists and is not considered legal advice.



The Slatin Report Real Estate Intelligence

USA 12 13 15


UNSUPPORTABLE AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Peter Slatin

Indexes offering relatively good news about consumer sentiment or economic growth are proliferating. But an index that debuted in 1998 was released Tuesday that offers something more basic to chew on, especially as we mull the latest bump in short-term interest rates from the Federal Reserve and the shape and size of a housing bubble..

The National Low-Income Housing Coalition came out with its aptly named index, Out of Reach 2005. It calculates, according to the NLIHC, "the hourly wage that someone must earn - working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year - to be able to afford rent and utilities in the private local housing market in every state, metropolitan area and county in the country."

The dollar figure the NLIHC came up with, which they call the housing wage, is $15.78 an hour, up from $15.37 an hour in 2004 and $15.21 in 2003.

NLIHC lays the blame "for much of the increase in renter housing costs" on what it says was a 13%-plus rise in housing-related fuel and utitily costs last year. With fuel costs up significantly, that number will likely be even harsher in the next index..

The impact of increasing fuel costs underscores what NLIHC says is an unfortunate element of this year's report: For the first time, NLIHC�s data shows that a full-time worker at minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. And the report notes that a family with two full-time workers earning federal minimum wage would make just $21,424, significantly less than the $32,822 annually they would need to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.

According to the report, 81% of American family renters live in counties where a two full-time minimum-wage workers will be unable to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

Not surprisingly, the most expensive city in the nation for renters: San Francisco. The highest-cost state: Hawaii. California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York round out the top five states.

To see the full list of state rankings, click here.

Click here for a list of the least affordable jurisdictions.
http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/features/leastaffordabletable.pdf'>http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/features/leastaffordabletable.pdf">http://www.theslatinreport.com/content/features/leastaffordabletable.pdf

To read the full report, please to to

http://www.nlihc.org/oor2005/