A recent study by the Center for Housing Policy says the tough economy is putting an even greater squeeze on working families, with falling incomes and rising rents combining to make housing even more expensive.
The study used Census data on household income from 2008-2010, the most recent year for which Census data was available. It examined the trends in housing costs including rent, mortgage payments and utilities for 45.1 million "working households." The group defines working households as those whose adult members worked at least 20 hours per week and who earned less than 120 percent of local median income – thereby excluding retirees and the wealthy.
Of slightly less than 1 million working households in the Bay state, 231,406, – 24 percent – spent more than half their income on housing costs in 2010, a slight increase from 2009’s 22 percent, but on par with 2008. Those numbers also hold true for the Boston metropolitan area. Massachusetts placed in the middle of the pack both nationally and among the New England states for housing costs.
"This report shows that while Massachusetts is faring better than two dozen states, our state’s public and private sectors must continue to work together to offer affordable housing opportunities for over 230,000 working households that are paying an excessive amount of their income towards the cost of housing," said Sean Caron, director of public policy at the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, a Massachusetts affordable housing and community development advocacy organization.
Since 2008, there has been a steady trend in decreasing costs for owners and increasing costs for renters, with housing costs declining 2 percent between 2008 and 2010 for owner and increasing 4 percent for renters.
But despite the decreased housing costs for owners, their situation also worsened over the two-year period, as their income dropped an average of 5 percent. Renter’s incomes dropped an average of 4 percent. The drops are a function of layoffs and fewer hours, the study concluded, with the national average of hours worked per week for working households dropping to 48 in 2010 from 50 in 2008.
