Relocating to Cheaper Housing May Not Help Low-Wage Families

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Relocating to Cheaper Housing May Not Help Low-Wage Families
By JAMES R. HAGERTY
October 11, 2006; Page A2

Moving to an area with lower housing costs often doesn't pay off for low-income Americans, according to a study to be released today by the Center for Housing Policy, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.

The study, which looks at families with low to moderate incomes in 28 metropolitan areas, found that transportation costs in places with cheaper housing are often so high that they wipe out the savings from lower rent or mortgage payments. Such places tend to be farther from employers or short on public transportation, which makes commuting costlier.

(snip)

The findings contradict the common notion that many people would be better off financially if they moved from areas with high housing costs, such as California, to states like Texas or Georgia, where housing is much cheaper. The median house price in San Diego, at $613,000, is four times that of Dallas. But the study found that working families in San Diego spend 59% of their income on housing and transportation, only slightly more than the 57% they spend in Dallas. Families in Dallas spent just 26% of their income on housing, compared with 31% in San Diego, but the Dallas families spent more on transport.

The study also found that moving to an inexpensive outer suburb, but continuing to work near a city center, often backfires. Typically, a move that adds more than about 12 miles to a one-way commute will result in a rise in transport costs that outweighs the savings on housing, the researchers found.

(snip)

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116052332205488648.html (subscription)

[evlbstrd]

1. I can attest to that fact.

And I didn't have to move to do it.
I have lived in the city all my adult life (I'm fifty). For all but nine of those years, I worked in the city. It was easy to get to and from work without a car. Then, for nine years I worked in a suburban location. Public transportation was all but nonexistent and traffic sucked. If my car broke down, I was fucked. I'm now back in the city and walking to work for free.

[lcordero2]

2. it seems like defying logic is a way of life

It seems like they try and find every excuse to nickel and dime the working class.

[hfojvt]

3. subscription @#%$%&!!

Is there an URL for the study? For example, how did they define "working family" and were housing costs the same for apartments vs. houses? To spend 60% of income on housing and transportation is astounding! Are they talking about total income or after tax income? For example, in 2005 my income was $23,207.30. 7.65% went to FICA, 4% to mandatory retirement, 17.2% to IRA, 4.7% went to Federal Taxes, 2.2% to State taxes. That's almost 36%. If I was spending 60% on housing and transportation, that wouldn't leave alot for groceries or clothes. The IRA expense is voluntary, but if it went to 0% then my Federal taxes would go up by 2.6% and state taxes by .6%.

[question everything]

4. Working families: incomes of $20,000 to $50,000 a year

Here is a link for the study

http://www.nhc.org/index/chp-newsroom-events

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. I tried too,

In a failed attempt to "simplify my life" (see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5674435#5674775) I moved into a small house in suburbia because I could not longer afford my old home after I had quit a much higher paying job in an attempt to avoid a complete meltdown. My grand plan was that I would find modest job that would support a modest lifestyle and be done with working 80 hour weeks and endless travel

The house was nice and I could afford it - but spending almost five hours a day on the road was just replacing one stress with another after I determined working at a small computer store in a strip mall in the middle of nowhere wasn't going to provide much other than poverty.

[question everything]

6. Hi policypunk

Welcome to DU

:toast: :bounce:

Sorry about the failed attempts. Five hours on the road!

Hope you've found an acceptable compromise

[Keepontruking]

7. cheaper housing

Well Duh....where do you think the cheaper land is......not in
the prime location!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Poor=er people always get
ripped off.  Know the saying the rich get rich get richer and
the poor get poor-er well it is becoming more and more true in
todays world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Circus Girl

[question everything]

8. If poor people live in the inner cities with good transportation

like Chicago, NY, even Minneapolis - and if the jobs are in the cities, then there is no problem.

The problem starts with many jobs moving to the suburbs to which there are no transportation. After all, people moved to the suburbs to distance themselves from the inner cities.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. if there is affordable housing in the inner city...

What little affordable housing there is keeps getting sold off to developers to build condos that start at a quarter of a million!