Revisiting the Case for Affordable Housing Four Years Later: Reminder of Value of BLS Salary Data When Understanding Affordable Housing
<p>In 2017, a CED blog post asked if wages in different parts of the state were sufficient to sustain a person who wants to live and work there. For example, in 2016, nursing assistants in Goldsboro earned $11.83 an hour (median wage) for a mean annual salary of $24,610. Things have improved in terms of wages, even accounting for modest inflation. As of May 2020, the median wage was $14.83 with a mean annual salary of $30,850, a 25% increase in nominal terms. This would be excellent news, as long as other expenses didn’t grow faster – like housing.<br /> </p> <p> </p> <p>The challenge of providing affordable housing is front and center</p> <p style="font-size: 16px"></p> <p>in many North Carolina communities, especially those dealing with rapid growth. Prior blog posts have discussed measuring the affordable housing crisis, the role of the Low-Income Tax Credit, and Revolving Loan Funds for affordable housing. Many of the approaches to the affordable housing crisis come from the prospective of making housing affordable by making it less expensive. However, it is important to remember the demand side of the equation – even if salaries are rising, if housing costs are rising faster, the situation could be deteriorating. CED professionals should not only keep an eye on housing costs, but also on local wages. A revisit to the easily, accessible, wonderfully-detailed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website on Occupational Employment Statistics can help with the buyer/renter side of the equation by looking at what is going on with salaries.</p> <p>In Goldsboro, in 2016, the costs of a [...]</p>
