Decomposing Housing Unaffordability
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A US household is considered ‘rent burdened’ when its rent exceeds 30% of its income. This simple ratio can be decomposed to better understand the sources of unaffordability across space. To demonstrate this new approach, I rewrite the equation for rent burden as a sum of four factors: rent gap, income gap, excess size cost, and demographic baseline, and show that US rental unaffordability is mostly the result of low incomes. Focusing on the New England region, however, I show that high rent is the primary cause of unaffordability in high-cost, high-wage metro areas. This decomposition can help affordability advocates prioritise strategies appropriately across space.
2013 ◽
Vol 448-453
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pp. 2573-2577
1974 ◽
Vol 6
(2)
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pp. 73-79
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2013 ◽
Vol 55
(4)
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pp. 263-281
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1999 ◽
Vol 173
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pp. 185-188
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1973 ◽
Vol 31
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pp. 698-699
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1985 ◽
Vol 43
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pp. 714-715
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