Housing and Transportation Affordability Index

The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing based on its location.

Americans traditionally consider housing affordable if it costs 30 percent or less of their income. The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, in contrast, offers the true cost of housing based on its location by measuring the transportation costs associated with place.

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Traditional View

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New View (H+T)

Housing and Transportation Affordability

Compare the traditional view of affordability with the new view including transportation costs. In all the cities, many distant suburbs are less affordable than they appear.

What is Location Efficiency?

While the concept of energy efficiency is a familiar term, locations can be efficient too. Compact neighborhoods with walkable streets, access to transit, and a wide variety of stores and services have high location efficiency. They require less time, money, and greenhouse gas emissions for residents to meet their everyday travel requirements.

The savings add up for households and communities. Transportation costs can range from 15% of household income in location efficient neighborhoods to over 28% in inefficient locations. Greenhouse gas emissions fluctuate too, depending on household reliance on costly, carbon-intensive automobile travel.

More on location efficiency and the H+T Index...

New Website Features

Now covers 337 metro regions
Block Groups identified
Block Group regional benchmark
Find low and high values

[map][map]	Advanced Statistics Provides options for calculating number and percentage of people and communities for H+T variables. HUD applicants can calculate specific NOFA requirements. Click here for directions.
[map][map]	Household Auto Greenhouse Gas Emissions Compare denser neighborhoods with more dispersed communities. Due to location efficiency, compact neighborhoods produce less CO2 per household related to driving.
[map][map]	Impact of Gas Prices Compare the impact of 2000 and 2008 gas prices to see that location inefficient neighborhoods are more vulnerable to fluctuating gas prices.
[map][map]	Custom Comparison Compare the impact of various pairs of characteristics, to understand what drives the affordability of a neighborhood. Choose your own comparison with "Custom Comparison."

HUD Applicants

Calculating the proportion of the population (or households) spending more than 45% of income on housing and transportation costs

Select the region that you are interested in. The default maps are housing costs as a percentage of income, and housing and transportation costs as a percentage of income. "Legend and Description" is the default display; click on the arrow labeled "Change" to bring up the Display menu.

Three of the displays: "Population Statistics," "Household Statistics," and "Neighborhood Statistics" provide information applicable to the HUD NOFAs. Select "Population Statistics."

The legend changes and now indicates the number and percentage of people in block groups where costs meet or exceed affordability standards, including where housing and transportation costs are 45% and greater.

The population statistics are given for the area visible on the map, but the area of focus can be changed. When you zoom or pan to change the map view the statistics will update. You can also click on the "Focus" dropdown menu to obtain population statistics for areas other than the map area.

"Whole Region" provides data for the entire region while "County" and "Municipality" allow you to view data for any county or municipality within the region. Select "County" (the following steps are also applicable for "Municipality") to bring up another dropdown menu with a list of all the counties in the region.

After you choose a county the population statistics will update and the map will zoom to your selection, with the boundaries of the county highlighted.

To determine the number of households that spend more than 45% of income on housing and transportation costs, click the "Change" arrow again to bring up the Display menu and choose "Household Statistics."

The area of focus will remain the same, but you can follow the same steps as you did with "Population Statistics" to change it. "Neighborhood Statistics" gives data on the proportion of neighborhoods (Census block groups) that are affordable or unaffordable.

This information is also available in the FAQ.

H+T Affordability Index

The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing based on its location.

Housing and Transportation Affordability

Enter a Metropolitan Region:

What is Location Efficiency?

New Website Features

Advanced Statistics

Household Auto Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Impact of Gas Prices

Custom Comparison

HUD Applicants

Calculating the proportion of the population (or households) spending more than 45% of income on housing and transportation costs