FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2011
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National Report Confirms Vermont Findings
Vermont’s high cost of housing highlighted in national housing affordability report
BURLINGTON – A national report confirms that renters in Vermont struggle to find affordable places to live. In 2010, Vermont is ranked the 15th least affordable state in the nation, according to a new report jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a Washington, DC-based housing advocacy group, and the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition (VAHC).
These findings confirm the housing/wage research done by the Vermont Housing Finance Agency for their report, Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont, which was released just over a week ago.
As found in the Housing and Wage report, the Vermont Housing Wage is estimated at $19.04. This is the 15th highest Housing Wage in the nation and the 4th highest growth rate for Housing Wage change from 2000-2010, at 65%.
The Housing Wage is the amount per hour, working full time, and only paying 30% of their income on housing, that an individual would have to make to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the Fair Market Rent (FMR). In Vermont, the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment is $990.
Affordability has also declined in the rural areas of Vermont; rural Vermont ranks 8th highest for the most expensive rural areas in the nation. Vermont’s Housing Wage for the rural areas of Vermont is $16.91, a 58% increase since 2000. This ranks Vermont as the 5th highest increase for rural, non-metro areas nationally.
Working at the minimum wage in Vermont, a family must have 2.3 wage earners working full-time – or one full-time earner working 93 hours per week at minimum wage – to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.
The typical renter in Vermont earns $10.75 per hour, which is $8.29 less than the hourly wage needed to afford a modest unit.
The report, Out of Reach 2011, provides the Housing Wage and other housing affordability data for every state, metropolitan area and county in the country, comparing 52 jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A Vermont fact sheet is attached. The full report is available online at: http://www.vtaffordablehousing.org/documents/resources/695_OOR_2011_-_Intro_Tables_Maps_and_Appendices.pdf
The Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition is Vermont’s only statewide membership organization dedicated to ensuring that all Vermonters have decent, safe and affordable housing, particularly the state’s low and moderate-income residents, elders, and people with disabilities.
For information on the Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition, visit www.vtaffordablehousing.org.
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While the high cost of affordable housing is certainly not good for our state…the rate of growth of the problem seems to me a bit of a ret herring.
Vermont did not suffer the housing mortgage collaspe that the rest of the nation did because we have responcible banks and good consumer protection laws. This has prevented the sharp decline in housign value..and there for the associated lower rental costs/income that most of the nation is suffering. We like the rest of the nation have seen wage stagnation..or evan some wage reduction going on. This seems to make the figures growing worst than the really are.
The fact that our housing values have not been sharply reduced is good news for most Vermonters, especially those whose house value is a key part of their retirement….and has not changed the cost of low income housing as sharply as the article implies.
We do need to address the shortage of affordable low income housing.