HousingWorks: R.I. homeowners, renters burdened by housing costs

THE MAP shows the percent of households that would be housing-cost burdened, that is, that have to spend more than 30 percent of annual household income on housing costs, including rent/mortgage, utilities and insurance, according to HousingWorks RI.  / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RI
THE MAP shows the percent of households that would be housing-cost burdened, that is, that have to spend more than 30 percent of annual household income on housing costs, including rent/mortgage, utilities and insurance, according to HousingWorks RI. / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RI

PROVIDENCE – Across the state, homeowners as well as renters continue to be burdened by housing costs, according to the 2015 Housing Fact Book, released Friday morning by HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University.
The data indicates that the family earning $55,902 last year, the state’s median household income, could afford to purchase the median-priced home in only six communities.
Households earning less than $30,000 could not affordably purchase a median-priced, single-family home in any town or city, according to the report. The six communities that were within reach of the families with median level incomes were: Central Falls, Providence (excluding the East Side), Pawtucket, Woonsocket, West Warwick and Warwick.
The range of housing cost-burdened households, meanwhile, extends statewide. A family is considered housing cost burdened if it spends more than 30 percent of its annual income on housing costs, including rent, mortgage, utilities and insurance.
In Rhode Island, 35 percent of homeowners fell into that category last year, while 51 percent of renters did.
“In each community, there are people who are cost burdened. It’s not just the urban core,” said Jessica Cigna, research and policy director for HousingWorks RI.
The analysis of data by the organization also found that the state’s low rates of new housing construction, combined with the high cost of housing, are affecting housing affordability.
Rhode Island in 2014 produced the least amount of new housing units of any state, amplifying demand among residents for affordable housing. And since 2000, the state has added 22,679 housing units, the second-smallest increase in the nation. Sixty-five percent of those units were single-family homes.
Last year, 952 units were authorized by building permits. Only 10 communities authorized new residential construction. The state was ranked last nationally in 2014 for the units authorized, and has consistently been in the bottom five states for building permits issued over the past 15 years, according to the report.
When reviewing households in Rhode Island by age group, the report authors identified residents in the millennial age group as being far less likely to form households, compared to older generations. Twenty-eight percent of Rhode Islanders aged 18 to 34 headed a household last year, compared with 41 percent of the same age bracket in 2000.
Nearly half of all millennials either live alone or with non-related roommates, according to the Fact Book.
For the housing market, this has implications across rental and ownership lines, according to Nicole Lagace, director of HousingWorks RI.
“From a housing market perspective, millennials are a generation we cannot ignore,” she said. “Their housing choices and how affordability plays into those choices are going to be critically important to the future of our housing market.”

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