Most people when they hear the term affordable housing immediately think of housing for the homeless are for the very poor. Many go so far as to say they don't want such projects in their neighborhood as it would attract the wrong crowd.
Yes this is a common misconception of what affordable housing is.
According to a report on the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) as defined by HUD, the Area Median Income for a family of 4 in the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown NY MSA is $78,900.
The Labor Department statictics in May 2006 for MSA areas on wages provided the follow figures for the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown MSA area
Elementary Teacher $59,540
Register nurse $62,750
Paralegal $48,970
Firefighter $44,480
Police $52,310
Carpenter $44,750
Engineer $71,190
System Analyst $72,470
The median sale price for a house in Dutchess for May was: $325,000
So affordable housing is a concern not just for the poor. These numbers reveal that people making up the core part of our community could not afford to buy the median price home.
Yes affordable house affects your grandmother, the teacher next door , the firefighter to name a few. It was no surprise that at the recent Affordable and Workforce Housing Conference it was repeated over and over that employers are having a hard time attracting new talent to the area because of the lack of affordable housing.
Stay tune for my writeup on the conference.
Jennifer Fivelsdal - JFIVE HOMES REALTY LLC - 845-758-6842- jennifer@jfivehomes.com
www.jfivehomes.com or www.midhudsonhomevalue.com
Copyright © by Jennifer Fivelsdal, all rights reserved-What is meant by affordable housing?
Jennifer Fivelsdal - JFIVE HOMES REALTY LLC - 845-758-6842- jennifer@jfivehomes.com
www.jfivehomes.com or www.midhudsonhomevalue.com
jennifer, we USE to have that problem here. Then home buyers had to move to the out skirts of Ann Arbor. With the decline of prices now people are moving into Ann Arbor first, the outer area's are suffering the most. Salaries have not in the past kept up with housing needs to live in Ann Arbor. So the market shift has now made it more affordable. I guess you could say the "silver lining" in a declining market.
Jennifer- Thank you for this post. I think this is a major problem in the Hudson Valley. I look forward to your post on the conference. Great Job!
Jennifer, you write an excellent post, as always. Affordable housing as taken in dividing the median or average sale price of a home by the income of a household makes many areas of the country "challenging." Despite other problems we have in our local housing market in Texas, we are very affordable. For the life of me, especially in parts of California, I don't know how almost anyone can buy a house when I see prices like $500K, $700K, $900K for homes. As Missy mentioned, sometimes going far out in the suburbs is the answer or 40 yr loans.
Jennifer, affordable housing in our area (east end of Long Island) puts pricing in the 3's. While that may seem low, it isn't, for exactly the incomes that you have pointed out- it's a stretch. Thanks for some great insight!
Missy - That is one advantage of a declining marketing as long as the employment is not also declining.
Barb - This is a major issue in our area. The conference was well worth the time.
Gary - The same thing happened here, many moved way out and had to endure long commutes. With the high gas price they will have to confront any issue.
Laurie - That is exactly the the point the income has not kept up with the higher home prices over the past few years.
Jennifer, great point!!!!
Afordable housing has nothing to do with the homeless, but it does have everything to do with people's ability to buy houses that are priced within their income range.
Jennifer, you are so correct. The words "affordable housing" are really very relative terms. What is affordable for me may not be affordable for you. By the way, the elementary teacher salary up there... I wish! I was 20,000 below that when I quit teaching about a year ago.
Huds website
The generally accepted definition of affordability is for a household to pay no more than 30 percent of its annual income on housing. A primary factor in housing affordability is household income. The most common approach is to consider the percentage of income that a household is spending on housing costs.
Jennifer - Because we are in the same market I appreciate you sharing this. I spoke a few months ago with a credit counselor about referring some people who are falling behind on their bills and needed help before making the final decision to put their house on the market. I was told by our local expert that $100,000 a year is not considered a lot of money as it relates to our local cost of living. Particularly, we were discussing somebody who had a $350,000 mortgage and earned just over 6 figures. She said this fellow was finacing way too much for his income level and considered him to be way over his head!
Hi Jennifer, Thanks for putting this one out. Housing is not affordable for a lot of people. It's gotten a bit out of hand when the people working in the city can't afford to live there.
What an interesting point to ponder...things are definitely out of line here.
Great post! Affordable housing, along with low taxes is one of the many reasons people are flocking to Greenville, SC
Jennifer,
Great job on your new home buttons! They are creative and inviting. I hope they will generate more clients for you.
Hi Jennifer! As a result of your post, Affordable Housing may have displaced Jumbo Shrimp as my favorite Oxymoron! Great post and info!!!