Out of Reach

This is the 2000 edition of Out of Reach. Click here for the most current edition.

Out of Reach
The Growing Gap Between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States

Jennifer G. Twombly, Research Director
Winton Pitcoff, Communications Director
Cushing N. Dolbeare, Founder and Chair Emeritus
Sheila Crowley, President

Many people know that millions of households in the United States cannot afford to pay for decent housing. Far fewer people know the extent of the affordability problem in their own communities. The National Low Income Housing Coalition produces Out of Reach in an effort to provide this information to policy makers and advocates. Out of Reach contains income and rental housing cost data for the fifty states and District of Columbia by state, metropolitan area, and county or, in the case of New England, town. For each, it calculates the income that renter households need in order to afford rental housing and estimates how many of these households cannot afford to pay the Fair Market Rent (FMR), and what they would need to earn to pay the rent and keep their housing costs at 30 percent of their income, the generally accepted standard for affordability established by Congress and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
 
  • Preface by Andrew Cuomo Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
  • Introduction
  • Methodology
  • Sources and Related Information
  • The Least Affordable States
  • The Least Affordable Metropolitan Statistical Areas
  • The Least Affordable Counties
  • The Least Affordable Combined Nonmetro Areas
  • States with Largest Changes in Housing Wage, 1999-2000
  • Metropolitan Statistical Areas with Largest Changes in Housing Wage, 1999-2000
  • Local Jurisdictions with Largest Changes in Housing Wage, 1999-2000
  • Combined Nonmetro Areas with Largest Changes in Housing Wage, 1999-2000
  • State Ranks Based on Two Bedroom Housing Wage

    •  
  • How to Use the Numbers
  • Where the Numbers Come From
    		•
    Data

    To View Data for a State, County, Town (New England states only), Metropolitan Statistical Area, or combined nonmetro areas for a state, choose a state:


    You can select more than one state by holding down the Control key.

    Appendix: Explanation of Fair Market Rents

    Press release
    Statement of HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo
    Statement of Senator James M. Jeffords
    Statement of NLIHC President Sheila Crowley

    1999 Out of Reach
    1998 Out of Reach

    Established in 1974, the National Low Income Housing Coalition is the only national organization dedicated solely to ending America’s affordable housing crisis. NLIHC is committed to educating, organizing, and advocating to ensure safe, decent, affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods for everyone.

    NLIHC provides up-to-date information, formulates policy and educates the public on housing needs and the strategies for the solutions.

    Additional copies of Out of Reach are available from NLIHC.

    Out of Reach and additional data are also available on the Coalition’s web site at www.nlihc.org/oor2000.

    Requests for permission to make copies of the original material should be mailed or faxed to:
    Attn: Publications
    National Low Income Housing Coalition
    1012 14th Street, NW, Suite 610
    Washington, DC 20005
    Tel: (202)662-1530
    Fax: (202)393-1973
    http://www.nlihc.org
    info@nlihc.org

    The data for nonmetro areas included in Out of Reach is being published in collaboration with:
    Housing Assistance Council
    Moises Loza, Executive Director
    1025 Vermont Ave., NW, Suite 606
    Washington, D.C. 20005
    Tel.: 202-842-8600
    Fax: 202-347-3441
    Web: www.ruralhome.org