Poll: Worries About Housing Costs

Priority in major cities

September 25, 2003
By Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

Town homes in Loudon County, Va., sold last year for about $250,000, and other single-family homes sold for much more.

Two out of three Americans in major metropolitan areas worry that teachers, police officers and firefighters in their towns can't afford to live where they work. Half worry that their children and grandchildren won't be able to live near them.

The poll, commissioned by the National Association of Realtors, shows that concern over affordable housing isn't limited to the poor and unemployed.

Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said they would support more affordable housing in their communities if the developments "fit with the area and were pleasant to look at."

That sentiment could come as a surprise to planners and zoning officials who are often besieged by angry homeowners when they propose apartments and town houses near single-family homes.

The survey results show that Americans are starting to see the social costs of escalating housing prices, says Cathy Whatley, a real estate agent from Jacksonville and president of the trade group. The survey is the association's first on affordable housing.

"People get it because they're beginning to see people they know, people they care about have challenges when they go out in the housing market," she says.

The Realtors group is one of the nation's largest trade associations. It has 950,000 members who work in almost every community. For real estate agents who are in the business of selling, a bigger supply of affordable homes would mean more sales.

The association is "trying to translate this out to their members and tell them that this is good business," says Steven Hornburg, a national housing strategist who helped design the survey. "They're getting in their members' faces and saying, 'Look, you really need to think about this.' "

Housing costs are eating up a bigger share of household budgets, says Shekar Narasimhan, chairman of the Campaign for Affordable Housing, a non-profit advocacy group based in San Francisco.

Housing costs generally have taken a back seat to issues such as the economy, health care and education. But the survey shows that Americans now worry about housing as much as affordable health care and, in some metropolitan areas, more than unemployment.

"The general rule of thumb for the last 40 years is that people can spend 30% on housing," he says. "Now, there are more than 1 million households paying more than 50% of their income on housing costs. It is becoming an issue for people making more than $50,000 a year."

Most people surveyed don't think government is doing a good job solving the affordable housing problem — they gave elected officials a "C." But some communities are beginning to respond:

• Cary, N.C., a suburb of booming Raleigh, permits "in-law" suites or "granny flats" above garages.

• Virginia's Prince William County, a Washington suburb that had discouraged the construction of town houses in favor of expensive single-family homes, is considering building affordable housing for county employees.

• California voters approved $2.1 billion in bonds last year to help low- and moderate-income people rent apartments or buy their first homes.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, where housing prices are so exorbitant that many teachers and public safety workers must live two hours away, employers have been pushing for cheaper housing. The median price for a Bay Area home last month was $447,000, a new high. Half paid more and half paid less. The U.S. median price is $168,900.

"There's a direct link between the economic prosperity of our county, region and state and whether or not people can afford to live here," says Shiloh Ballard, an associate director of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group. "Businesses recognize that link. If they're not able to recruit quality employees, that hurts the bottom line."

Residents are recognizing it, too. "If you want your schools to be quality schools with quality teachers, you need teachers to plant roots in that community," she says.

Those most likely to resist affordable housing are homeowners who fear it would lower their property values, says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. But studies have shown that cheaper units that are well designed and blend in with their surroundings don't affect values, he says.

Lang points to the Old Town section of Alexandria, Va., where his office is. "There are million-dollar town houses, and you can turn a corner and be in subsidized housing," he says. "The presence of regular, middle-class people will not ruin house values."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-09-24-affordable-housing-usat_x.htm