Thursday, Seattle’s City Hall is filled with discussion about the people who can afford to live in the city — and the people who will be able to afford to live here in the future. CHS will have more on the Seattle Workforce Housing Forum soon but you can read through some of the reports assembled for the forum today:
Supporting Documents:
a. City of Seattle Housing Needs Data
b. Incentive Zoning Presentation (Cornerstone)
c. Draft Benchmarking and Best Practice Report (Otak Inc.)
d. Speaker Bios
e. Seattle Cornerstone Report
f. Otak Presentation
While there is much to be done about providing affordable rents in the city, the datasets included also address home ownership in the increasingly expensive city. Last fall, CHS reported on the harsh reality on Capitol Hill’s home ownership market — most of the people currently living in the neighborhood cannot afford to buy a house here. There aren’t many condos you can buy, either.
Meanwhile, the story of climbing rents on Capitol Hill continued for buildings old and new.
We’ve embedded the “Housing Needs Data” report below that documents existing conditions in the city and documents what rent various earning levels can afford. The 2014 HUD Area Median Family Income — MFI in the document, below — is $88,200.
The chart seems to indicate that rents for “affordable (50-80% AMI)” studio apartments is higher than the total average rent for studios. Are these the same affordable units the city is giving developers height easements to build? If they are the same units then the affordable housing they’re building is a joke. Why doesn’t the city require that units be built for people in the 30-50% AMI range?
So according to the City’s report, 74% of Seattle households make more than 50% of the Area Median Family Income. Is the City mixing apples and oranges or are they truly that stupid? In either case, why would a thinking person ever trust their report?
Median… I do not think it means what you think it means.
Dave, your comment is helpful only in highlighting the fact that you’re oblivious to the definition of meridian. Why not take a few seconds to google it and come back and explain to us what it means.
A meridian is a line of longitude :)
Median is very nicely explained on Wikipedia for those having difficulty interpreting the charts.