1. HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION AFFORDABILITY INDEX July 24, 2013 East Central VT Sustainability Consortium Meeting Jason Rasmussen Senior Planner http://www.streamlinerefinance.net/cost-of-commuting.html

2. Why develop an H+T affordability index? To start a conversation about choosing where to live. This index, which is based on work by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, is a tool to measure the true affordability of housing choices.

3. What is affordable in Vermont? Affordable housing is “housing that is owned or rented by its inhabitants whose gross annual household income does not exceed 80% of the county median income [...] and the total annual cost of the housing [...] is not more than 30% of the household’s gross annual income”. 24 VSA § 4303

4. What about transportation costs? In rural areas housing is often less expensive, but that often means that transportation costs are higher as people have to travel further. Transportation is considered affordable when a household pays no more than 15% of its annual income on transportation (Center for Neighborhood Technology)

5. Regional Housing Affordability

7. Center for Neighborhood Technology H+T Affordability Index http://www.cnt.org/

8. Are our towns affordable?

9. Questions? Jason Rasmussen, Senior Planner 802-674-9201 jrasmussen@swcrpc.org