Study: Many senior women who have home mortgages burdened

MORE SENIOR women own their homes today, but those who have a mortgage are burdened by the cost, according to HousingWorks RI and the Women's Fund of Rhode Island. / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RI
MORE SENIOR women own their homes today, but those who have a mortgage are burdened by the cost, according to HousingWorks RI and the Women's Fund of Rhode Island. / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RI

PROVIDENCE – More senior women own their homes today, but those who have a mortgage are burdened by the cost, according to HousingWorks RI.
HousingWorks RI at Roger Williams University and the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island on Wednesday released information about some of the challenges being faced by senior women “head of households.”
“These findings should serve as a reminder that policymakers must have an integrated approach to improving housing affordability in order to support a wide range of housing options for those across the age spectrum,” Arianne Corrente, Women’s Fund of Rhode Island policy committee chair and vice chair of the board of directors, said in prepared remarks. “Rhode Island has a growing older population, and we know from previous studies that the housing cost burden is a concern for older women seeking to maintain their independence. Achieving economic security is essential to aging in place with dignity.”
HWRI Director Nicole Lagace said that challenges facing women heads of household in the Ocean State have been studied before, but this is the first time looking specifically at how older women are affected. She said Rhode Island ranks seventh in the country for the percentage of women aged 65+, and first for the percentage of women aged 85+.
“We wanted to see how the housing picture has changed for older women from 2000 to now.”
Housing Works RI analyzed U.S. Census data, discovering that more senior women, those 65 and older, own their homes today than in 2000. For those who own their homes and have a mortgage, 62 percent were burdened by housing costs last year, compared with 50 percent in 2000.

“It’s troubling to see that a majority of these mortgaged households are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing,” Lagace said (spending more than 30 percent of income on housing means that household is “burdened”). “The data also shows us that over a third of these households are severely cost burdened, meaning they spend more than half of their income on housing costs.”
Their analysis found that 29 percent of senior women who own their homes, but do not have a mortgage, were burdened by housing costs in 2000. That number jumped to 47 percent last year.

In 2000, the adjusted median income for these homeowners was $26,267 compared with $27,708 in 2013.

“We are especially concerned for this group of women because they saw very little income growth from 2000 to 2013,” Corrente said. “When income doesn’t keep pace with housing costs, it makes it difficult for these older women to fully participate in their local economy and contribute to our state’s well-being.”

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