About
History
The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, was developed by CNT and its collaborative partner, the Center for Transit Oriented Development (CTOD), as a project of The Brookings Institution's Urban Markets Initiative.
The first phase was released in January 2006 and specifically examined the variables that inform Housing + Transportation costs in St. Paul/ Minneapolis, MN. The key finding of this report is that location matters, and can affect the true cost of housing when transportation costs are factored in. For more information see The Affordability Index: A New Tool for Measuring the True Affordability of a Housing Choice.
The initial H + T research found that two primary independent variables in the household transportation model, residential density and household income, drive three primary dependent variables, auto ownership, auto use and transit ridership. For a general description of the methodology used to develop the H+T Index click here.
The Index received much attention from policy makers for its benefits to planners and TOD advocates and served as the basis for several additional research projects.
In 2006 the Center for Housing Policy published a report The Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Households using H + T data compiled by CNT for working families in 28 metros.
In early 2008, CNT expanded the H + T Index to include neighborhood-level data for 52 U.S. metropolitan areas, again with support from the Brookings Institution. This effort resulted in an interactive mapping website where users could see H + T results at the neighborhood level, with additional information on auto ownership, transit use, housing density and other community characteristics. Also in 2008, CNT was a co-author with Carrie Makarewicz, doctoral candidate at UC Berkley, on the report Estimating Transportation Costs by Characteristics of Neighborhood and Household, published by the Transportation Research Record, the Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
At the height of the gasoline price peaks in the summer of 2008, CNT added maps for the 52 metros on the H + T website, showing how rising gasoline prices adversely affected vulnerable auto dependent neighborhoods.
In 2009, in partnership with The Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing of the Urban Land Institute and the Center for Housing Policy, CNT produced an updated H + T analysis for the Washington DC area culminating in a report The Beltway Burden : The Combined Cost of Housing and Transportation in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. To expand the reach of the H + T Index, CNT developed a new online housing and transportation cost calculator where consumers can access up-to-date Washington, DC cost data to make informed housing decisions.
CNT recently expanded the H + T website to include two views of urban greenhouse gas emissions associated with household auto use, and to include three new cities: San Antonio, El Paso, and Tucson. Later in 2009 CNT will expand the H + T analysis to over 330 metros in the US, and provide coverage for more than 80% of the population in the US.
CNT thanks its funders for their insightful and generous support for the development and expansion of the H + T Index: The Brookings Urban Markets Initiative, Center for Housing Policy of the National Housing Conference, The Energy Foundation, Grand Victoria Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, Surdna Foundation, and Wallace Global Fund.
The H + T work has also been greatly enhanced by the many transit agencies who generously shared their route and system information.