{"id":373442,"date":"2018-12-14T09:52:03","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T17:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&p=373442"},"modified":"2019-06-15T22:57:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T05:57:01","slug":"the-delicate-balance-between-housing-affordability-growth-and-income","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/esri-demographics\/analytics\/the-delicate-balance-between-housing-affordability-growth-and-income","title":{"rendered":"The Delicate Balance between Housing Affordability, Growth, and Income"},"author":8612,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23341],"tags":[38561,24571,280752],"industry":[],"product":[36581,37011],"class_list":["post-373442","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","tag-demographic","tag-demographics","tag-housing-affordability","product-arcgis-living-atlas","product-esri-demographics"],"acf":{"short_description":"This article introduces the Housing Affordability Index and analyzes its relationship with income and household growth.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Searching for the American Dream<\/h2>\n

Have you ever been reluctant to accept a job because of housing costs?\u00a0 Do you want to leave your current area and move somewhere more affordable?\u00a0 Whether you are a current homeowner searching for a more affordable housing option, or a newcomer onto the housing scene, high homes prices are felt across the country.<\/p>\n

In addition, variation in affordable housing across cities may impact migration patterns.\u00a0 Some households are pushed out of expensive cities and are forced to find a better balance between income and housing costs.\u00a0 Other households may be reluctant to follow economic opportunity to expensive parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Given that a home is often the most expensive purchase households make, an understanding of housing affordability is crucial for understanding the broader economy.\u00a0 Several new data products help us investigate the relationship between housing affordability and the growth of cities.<\/p>\n

Esri\u2019s Housing Affordability Index<\/h2>\n

Esri\u2019s Data Development Team established measures to understand the housing market (What\u2019s New with Housing Demographics<\/a>), including a Housing Affordability Index (HAI)<\/a> that measures the ability of a typical resident to purchase an existing home in an area.<\/p>\n

The index has a base of 100, representing an area where the median income is sufficient to qualify for a loan on a home valued at the median home price and not be cost-burdened.\u00a0 We use a common measure where a household is considered cost-burdened if they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing-related costs.<\/p>\n

An index greater than 100 references areas where homes are affordable.\u00a0 An HAI less than 100 indicates areas where homes are less affordable and where median income is not high enough to purchase a median valued home.\u00a0 The map below shows the HAI by county, highlighting the spatial distribution of housing affordability. Darker blue areas represent higher housing affordability<\/span><\/strong>, while darker red areas represent lower affordability<\/span><\/strong> when indexed to the US average of 124.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":381392,"id":381392,"title":"2018 US HAI by County-NO BASE MAPnew","filename":"2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1.png","filesize":114358,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/esri-demographics\/analytics\/the-delicate-balance-between-housing-affordability-growth-and-income\/2018-us-hai-by-county-no-base-mapnew-2","alt":"","author":"8612","description":"","caption":"","name":"2018-us-hai-by-county-no-base-mapnew-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":373442,"date":"2018-12-14 17:23:39","modified":"2018-12-14 17:23:39","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1413,"height":761,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1-300x162.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":162,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1-768x414.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":414,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1-1024x551.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":551,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1.png","1536x1536-width":1413,"1536x1536-height":761,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1.png","2048x2048-width":1413,"2048x2048-height":761,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1-826x445.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":445,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-US-HAI-by-County-NO-BASE-MAPnew-1.png","wide_image-width":1413,"wide_image-height":761}},"image_position":"left-center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Housing Affordability Across Metropolitan Areas<\/h2>\n

Major metropolitan areas in the bubble chart below use 2018 median household income and the 2018 HAI as the axes, or $58,100 and 124, respectively.\u00a0 The four quadrants thus represent different categories of income and housing affordability.\u00a0 The bubble size represents household growth from 2010-2018.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":373602,"id":373602,"title":"ALL QUADRANT BUBBLE CHART","filename":"ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","filesize":104531,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/esri-demographics\/analytics\/the-delicate-balance-between-housing-affordability-growth-and-income\/all-quadrant-bubble-chart","alt":"","author":"8612","description":"","caption":"","name":"all-quadrant-bubble-chart","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":373442,"date":"2018-12-07 22:50:02","modified":"2018-12-07 22:50:02","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":910,"height":661,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":155,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","medium-width":359,"medium-height":261,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":558,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","large-width":910,"large-height":661,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","1536x1536-width":910,"1536x1536-height":661,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","2048x2048-width":910,"2048x2048-height":661,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","card_image-width":640,"card_image-height":465,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ALL-QUADRANT-BUBBLE-CHART.png","wide_image-width":910,"wide_image-height":661}},"image_position":"left-center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Cities in Colorado, Utah, Washington, Texas and Oregon have long been destinations for Californians fleeing high housing costs.\u00a0 While these areas remain more affordable than major cities in California, many of these cities are in the Low Affordability portion of the chart.\u00a0 As people move to these places in search of affordable housing, they can become unaffordable due to limits on their growth.<\/p>\n

Will cities like Denver, Seattle and Austin eventually move further to the bottom of this chart to become as unaffordable as Los Angeles and San Francisco?\u00a0 Or will growth patterns there slow before affordability levels get to that point and households move on to more affordable locations?<\/p>\n

Understanding the Relationship between Housing Affordability, Income, and Household Growth<\/h2>\n

Unsurprisingly, growth has slowed in the traditionally expensive urban areas of California and the Northeast.\u00a0 Some of the highest growth rates have been in the South and Mountain West.\u00a0 Where should one move to get both affordable housing and a high income<\/em>?\u00a0 Potential destinations include:<\/p>\n