New Housing + Transportation Affordability Index Website Launches

CNT’s new Housing + Transportation Affordability Index interactive mapping tool has just launched; the new website - http://htaindex.cnt.org - will enable planners, policy-makers, housing and transit advocates, and individuals to calculate the true costs of housing and transportation in cities across the United States.

The result of a two-year study supported by The Brookings Institution’s Urban Market Initiative, the Index is the most comprehensive housing + transit analysis to date. Utilizing United States Census data from 52 metropolitan areas, the Index analyzes data through neighborhood variables – such as household income, transit connectivity, and residential density – to determine auto ownership, transit use, and ultimately the cost of transportation as percent of income.

The traditional vision of housing affordability maintains that housing generally becomes more affordable the farther one ventures from the urban center. However, the study has found that transportation costs increase dramatically in suburban and exurban areas, due to dispersed employment, retail, and other amenities.

+ Press Release (PDF; 144 KB)
+ Fact Sheet (PDF: 118 KB)
+ Fact Sheets for eight select cities (zip file)
+ H + T interactive mapping website

Source: Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 12:11 am and is filed under Geographic, New Websites and Resources, Source File, Statistics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.