National Low Income Housing Coalition Releases Annual Out of Reach Report - May 2, 2011

Media Contact: Amy Clark, National Low Income Housing Coalition, 202-662-1530 x227, amy@nlihc.org.

Today more than 38 million households rent their homes, 1.9 million more than in 2007. The current rate of homeownership (66.5%) is now at the lowest level since 1998. And with the foreclosure crisis and recession on the one hand and the aging of the baby boom and the coming of age of the echo boom on the other, the demand for rental housing is only projected to grow. Out of Reach is a side-by-side comparison of wages and rents in every county, Metropolitan Area (MSAs/HMFAs), combined nonmetropolitan area and state in the United States. For each jurisdiction, the report calculates the amount of money a household must earn in order to afford a rental unit in a range of sizes (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 bedrooms) at the area’s Fair Market Rent (FMR), based on the generally accepted affordability standard of paying no more than 30% of income for housing costs. From these calculations the hourly wage a worker must earn to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom home is derived. This figure is the Housing Wage.

Please click here to access the report.