American Planning Association

Penny Wise, Pound Fuelish: New Measures of Housing + Transportation Affordability July 20, 2010 Under the traditional definition of housing affordability, seven out of 10 U.S. communities are considered "affordable" to the typical household. But in almost all metro regions of the country, when the definition of affordability includes both housing and transportation costs, the number of communities affordable to households earning the area median income decreases significantly. The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) has developed the Housing+Transportation (H+T) Index to address this shortcoming. The index is a publicly available database that demonstrates the transportation costs associated with a home's location thereby providing a more accurate measure of a community's affordability. Peter Haas from CNT provided an overview of the H+T Index, key findings, its public policy applications, and reported on related federal policy initiatives.