Affordability

Extracted Attributes

• Housing Continuum

  Emergency shelters, transitional housing, non-market rental, and home ownership

• Key Economic Drivers

  Housing supply, inflation, interest rates, and deficit spending

• Proposed Financial Tool

  Trump Accounts ($1,000 investment for every child at birth)

• Housing Affordability Standard

  30 percent of household income

• Higher Education Affordability Metric

  Ability of a typical family to afford 50% or more of educational options

Timeline

• Start of the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), leading to prolonged Quantitative Easing which critics argue fueled asset bubbles. (Source: Scott Bessent Interview)

  2008-01-01

• Education Commission of the States (ECS) releases a spotlight on defining affordability in higher education. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2019-07-01

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes 'The Housing Affordability Crunch' report. (Source: Web Search Results)

  2024-12-01

• Designated by the Trump Administration as the year for 'setting the table' for economic recovery. (Source: Scott Bessent Interview)

  2025-01-01

• Forecasted as a strong year for 'Main Street' and the target for solving affordability issues. (Source: Scott Bessent Interview)

  2026-01-01

Affordable housing

Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on affordable housing refers to mortgages and a number of forms that exist along a continuum – from emergency homeless shelters, to transitional housing, to non-market rental (also known as social or subsidized housing), to formal and informal rental, indigenous housing, and ending with affordable home ownership. Demand for affordable housing is generally associated with a decrease in housing affordability, such as rent increases, in addition to increased homelessness. Housing choice is a response to a complex set of economic, social, and psychological impulses. For example, some households may choose to spend more on housing because they feel they can afford to, while others may not have a choice. Increases in any housing supply (whether affordable housing or market-rate housing) leads to increased housing affordability across all segments of the housing markets.

Web Search Results

• [PDF] Defining Affordability in Higher Education

  should we define affordability? • For families, affordability can be defined as the ability to purchase needed/appropriate education and have sufficient resources to enjoy at least the minimum consumption of other essential goods and services. • For the state, affordability can be measured by the share of individuals who can afford higher education; weighted by completion rates. Affordability can measured at three points in time: 1. Affordability at entry into college – Does the student have [...] of resources to pay the cost of attendance at college entry? Affordability is achieved when: • The typical family can afford 50%+ of statewide educational options available to them. • The typical family can afford 50%+ of local educational options available to them. Grants + Work + Cost of Attendance (COA) Family Contribution + Loans COA > Resources: College is not affordable for the student COA < Resources: State may not be efficient in using its limited resources Affordability at entry [...] Defining Affordability in Higher Education What does it mean for college to be affordable? Currently no agreed-upon definition exists — creating a definition of affordability can guide higher education policy. “Affordability” depends on your perspective: • For families: Affordability takes into account income, other financial resources, family needs, educational goals, and other obligations. • For the state: Affordability must be an objective measure, and consider return on investment. How

• [PDF] Defining Affordability - Oregon.gov

  be implemented and be effective, it must have an operational definition, which can be measured. For this we look to the federal housing agency, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which offers one in their glossary11: AFFORDABILITY: the extent to which enough rental housing units of different costs can provide each renter household with a unit it can afford (based on the 30-percent-of-income standard). AFFORDABLE HOUSING: In general, housing for which the [...] affordability; instead it directs the Land Conservation and Development Commission to determine this. Absent an operational definition, one could identify many different measures of affordability. A logical starting point is the dictionary and common usage, which we explore in more detail below. Merriam-Webster defines affordable10 as: the adjective of the verb afford, whose simple definition is: :to be able to pay for (something) :to be able to do (something) without having problems or being [...] percentage of “affordable” units in any newly constructed multi-family building. In Oregon, the law enables cities to require that any new construction over 20 units have up to 20 percent of those units listed as “affordable.” In this case, “affordable” means the conventional 30% of income for households with incomes equal to or higher than 80 percent of the median family income for the county in which the housing is built. The law includes a number of other provisions, including an in-lieu fee

• The Housing Affordability Crunch - International Monetary Fund

  Housing affordability is a crucial yet subtle concept, especially when it comes to making comparisons among countries with very different housing markets and financing structures. Until now, the most widely used indicators focused on the basic commonsense notion of the relative cost of housing, such as the price-to-income ratio or the share of income spent on housing. [...] The approach focuses on a household’s ability to make regular mortgage payments on a typical property occupied by a family of ordinary size without scrimping on other essential needs. Specifically, our housing affordability index calculates the ratio of actual household income to the level of income required to qualify for a typical mortgage. This offers a more nuanced view of affordability and complements other metrics. A housing affordability index reading above 100 indicates more affordable [...] It also masks country-specific variations. For one, affordability tends to be worse and more volatile in emerging markets, in part reflecting their less developed mortgage markets. Also, reduced borrowing costs benefit mainly households in countries without inflated house prices. In several countries with strong price growth, low interest rates were insufficient to offset the impact of high property prices on affordability. For example, in Belgium, affordability improved as lower rates balanced

• How 'Affordability' Became a New Magic Word for Politicians

  “Affordability” was about somebody else’s problems. [...] Advertising recognized this. For decades, it deployed “affordable” with care: Like “value” or “budget,” the word could easily suggest that a product was bare-bones or second-rate, better suited to somebody poorer than you. It wasn’t until the 1990s that marketers found a way to invert that dollar-store aura with concepts like “affordable luxury” — “high end” brands selling a few mid-price items, letting consumers feel like they’re accessing goods of somebody richer. [...] Can you be against affordability? As with “crime,” it’s tough to stake out a contrary position; the word’s too modest and common-sensical, redolent of an era when political ads depicted median suburbanites at kitchen tables frowning over checkbooks. Trump is right to call it new, though. A phrase like “affordable housing” would not have made those suburbanites think hopefully about their own mortgages; it would have made them picture low-income units denting their property values.

• AFFORDABLE Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

  Synonyms of affordable : able to be afforded : having a cost that is not too high products sold at affordable prices an affordable purchase affordable housing [=housing that is not too expensive for people of limited means] affordability ə-ˌfȯr-də-ˈbi-lə-tē") noun affordably ə-ˈfȯr-də-blē") adverb an affordably priced car ## Synonyms of affordable Relevance popular accessible cheap discount See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus ## Examples of affordable in a Sentence