Affordable Housing in US Cities

Lack of rental units a hurdle for low-income residents, By Alan J. Heavens, March 23, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “For many of the last decade’s early years, construction of rental units (also known as multifamily housing) played second fiddle – sometimes even third fiddle – to building for-sale homes. In Philadelphia and other major cities, conversion of rental apartments to condominiums was the rule. In the suburbs, apartment construction was blocked by the shortage and price of adequately sized land parcels, endless state and local permit processes, and not-in-my-backyard opposition. Back then, from the federal government on down, the emphasis was on making everyone a homeowner – whether they could afford it or not. As a result, when the bottom fell out of the for-sale market in 2006-07 and people began looking for rentals, the pickings were slim. Today, census data show that of the 115.4 million U.S. households, renters account for 38.5 million, or 33 percent of the total, and that the rental-vacancy rate is at its lowest point since 2001, before the housing boom’s start…”