The Center For Housing Policy, a research affiliate of the National Housing Conference, an organization that promotes affordable housing, has released a startling study that reveals the inability of workers in certain MSAs across the U.S to buy median-priced homes.

Among those who can't afford housing in their areas are service providers who provide the backbone of community support in high-priced and moderately-priced areas -- medical workers, teachers, firefighters, police officers, retail sales workers and restaurant workers, says the Paycheck to Paycheck study of more than 60 occupations and home prices and rents in nearly 200 metropolitan areas.

The Center has turned its study into an interactive online database where anyone can look up wage and housing cost information with some surprising results. Using selections from a drop-down menu, Paycheck to Paycheck "provides custom charts examining the affordability of homes for workers including the income needed to qualify for the median priced home in the selected area. The information is then compared to "what workers in the selected occupations actually earn. Similarly, the rental chart shows the amount per hour a worker needs to earn to afford a one- or two-bedroom rental unit -- that is, so that rent does not exceed the generally accepted standard of 30 percent of income."

Specifically, health care workers are priced out of homeownership in the majority of U.S. Metropolitan areas nationwide, found the study. Licensed practical nurses "would not qualify to purchase the median priced home in an astounding 187 of the 202 Metro areas studied, followed by registered nurses at 115 and physical therapists at 104, while nursing aides and home health aides are priced out of homeownership in all the Metro areas studied."

The Center's study found that an annual income of $84,957 was needed to qualify to purchase the median priced home of $248,000 in the third quarter of 2006, yet, says the study, median annual salaries of registered nurses ($58,640), licensed practical nurses ($37,127), nursing aides ($24,745), physical therapists ($62,417) and home health aides ($20,414) all fell short.

Nursing aides cannot afford to rent a typical one-bedroom home in 80 of the Metro areas or a typical two-bedroom home in 147 of the Metro areas studied, while home health aides cannot afford to rent a one-bedroom home in 144 of the Metro areas or a two-bedroom home in 201 of the Metro areas studied.

Other vital workers are similarly priced out of median homes in their communities.

Police officers would not qualify to purchase the median priced home in 161 of the 202 Metro areas studied, followed by elementary school teachers at 157. Nationwide, the median annual salaries of elementary school teachers ($47,104), police officers ($45,780), licensed practical nurses ($37,127), retail salespersons ($24,597) and janitors ($23,724) all fell below the $84,957 annual income needed to qualify to purchase the median priced home of $248,000.

Janitors cannot afford to rent a typical one- bedroom home in 91 of the Metro areas or a two-bedroom home in 177 of the Metro areas studied. For retail salespersons the typical one-bedroom home is unaffordable in 78 of the Metro areas and the typical two-bedroom home is unaffordable in 162 of the Metro areas studied.

If workers follow conventional lending guidelines, not than 28 percent of household income should be used to pay the mortgage, property taxes and insurance. The study further assumes a downpayment of 10 percent.

The impact of the inaffordability of workforce housing is great. When workers are forced by inaffordability to live outside of the communities where they work, the result is immeasurable -- greater transportation costs, more congested traffic on roads, and less time spent in productive and rewarding pursuits with family and friends.

In a related study, the Center found an even more startling conclusion -- that what workforces don't spend on housing, they spend on transportation costs.

In a study released in October, 2006, the study found that transportation costs are eating up the savings they think they are earning in more affordable housing.

The combined transportation and housing costs were found to be a whopping 57 percent of annual income.

In 17 of 28 Metros studied, the average transportation costs for families with incomes ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 were higher than their housing costs. Working families across all 28 metros studied spent 28 percent of their income on housing $9,700, and 30 percent, $10,400, on transportation.

These combined costs range from a low of 54 percent in Pittsburgh to a high of 63 percent of annual income in San Francisco.

Published: January 31, 2007

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