Housing: An American dream moves out of reach

Social justice news
October 2003

Housing: An American dream moves out of reach
Immigrant workers' 'freedom ride' ends in NYC
Leaders lament U.S. withdrawal from Liberia
Slumworld?
Uninsured numbers rise—again—in 2002
Who's poorer now?

Housing: An American dream moves out of reach
As housing costs increase faster than wages, decent, modest housing is increasingly out of reach for millions of Americans, a report released today by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) shows.

The national "Housing Wage" for 2003 is $15.21 an hour, or $31,637 a year—almost three times the federal minimum wage—according to Out of Reach: 2003. The Housing Wage is the amount a person working full-time has to earn to afford a two-bedroom rental unit at fair market rent while paying no more than 30 percent of income in rent.

Other findings include:

For 2003, housing costs continue to rise faster than wages and the cost of other goods. The national Housing Wage increased by 3.7 percent between 2002 and 2003, while inflation was 2.1 percent. According to the Economic Policy Institute, real median earnings have fallen throughout much of 2002 and 2003.

The Housing Wage has increased 37 percent since 1999, when a person had to earn $11.08 an hour to afford fair market rent on a national basis. Housing costs are especially acute for families earning wages in the services sector, which continues to represent a fast-growing portion of the national economy. The average income earned by families with extremely low incomes (those at 30 percent or below of their area’s median income) is $8.34 an hour, yet there is no state in which an extremely low income household can afford the fair market rent on a two-bedroom home.

The report also highlights the inadequacy of the federal minimum wage, which has been $5.15 an hour since 1997. Renter households in 40 states—home to almost 90 percent of all renter households in the nation—face a Housing Wage of more than twice the prevailing minimum wage. Eleven states have Housing Wages more than three times the minimum wage.

"It is appalling that here in America, the richest country in the world, we have millions of people working full-time, plus seniors and people with disabilities, who cannot afford decent, modest rental housing," said NLIHC President Sheila Crowley. "Out of Reach clearly establishes that there is a gap between what people earn and what housing costs. It is time to make the housing crisis a priority and solve this problem once and for all.” (more)

According to Out of Reach: 2003, the least affordable states and their Housing Wages are:

1. Massachusetts $22.40
2. California $21.18
3. New Jersey $19.74
4. New York $18.87
5. Maryland $18.85
6. Connecticut $18.00
7. Hawaii $17.02
8. Alaska $16.75
9. New Hampshire $16.49
10. Colorado $16.29

The least affordable metropolitan statistical areas and their Housing Wages are San Jose, California ($35.02 an hour); San Francisco ($34.13 an hour); and Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut ($28.71 an hour).

Back to page top