Press and Updates
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New “Priced Out” Report Released
DESPITE RECENT ECONOMIC DOWNTURN NEW STUDY FINDS BAY AREA HOUSING “PERSISTENTLY AND PERVASIVELY” UNAFFORDABLE FOR WORKING FAMILIES
Download: Bay Area Burden: Key Findings
Read: What Experts Are Saying About the Report
Download: Bay Area Burden the report
ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing
Download: Beltway Burden
Download: Media Sheet: Cost Calculator
Download: Media Sheet: Press Coverage
Media Summary
“Planners and transit buffs routinely make the case that Bay Area residents can reap benefits by living close to their jobs and the errands of the day. Now comes a study that translates the payoff into dollars and cents—such as how the average San Francisco household spends roughly $500 less on transportation each month than households in such suburban outposts as Antioch or Livermore.” Read More.
— San Francisco Chronicle, 11/4/2009
“By examining the costs and impacts of housing and transportation on residents, their neighborhoods and the environment, the Bay Area Burden report offers the opportunity to better understand the true cost of limited workforce housing. San Francisco proudly understands and continues to work towards building sustainable communities where its workers have a reduced commute with housing options that fit their needs—all of this is of course to ensure they live comfortably with their families.”
— Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco
“Affordability is not just the cost of a house,” said Shelley Poticha, the newly appointed federal adviser for “sustainable housing and communities.” She also is the first person to hold such a position. . . .As a 25-year resident of Oakland, Poticha is bringing close knowledge of the Bay Area’s urban planning challenges and victories to the Department of Housing and Urban Development as she arrives there this fall. On Wednesday, she was part of a team of current and former federal officials and business people who unveiled “Bay Area Burden,” a new index created by a private institute that calculates the costs of living and commuting in the region.”
— Contra Costa Times, 11/05/2009
“Housing that appears affordable based solely on housing costs may not be truly affordable when it is located far from transit, jobs and services. This report underscores the importance of broadening the understanding of housing affordability challenges to also include transportation costs, time and the environmental impacts of commuting.”
— Henry Cisneros, former Secretary, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, ULI Terwilliger Board Member
“The report called “Bay Area Burden” also found that 60 percent of the Bay Area housing market is cutoff to people who don’t earn at least $80,000 a year.”
— KCBS Radio, 11/4/2009
“The Urban Land Institute’s new Bay Area Burden report offers more of the figures behind the general sense of being overstretched: almost 20 percent of all Bay Area homeowners spend more than half of their income on housing — far exceeding the national average of 12 percent.”
— The New York Times Blog, 11/12/2009
“California is the international leader in combating greenhouse gas emissions. The report, Bay Area Burden, helps to reinforce the importance of planning for transportation, housing and the environment. . . This report demonstrates the need for development efforts that will transform urban planning decisions about the availability of workforce housing in high-cost communities.”
— California Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
“The report, called “Bay Area Burden,” includes an online cost calculator for individuals to gauge the combined costs of their housing and transportation decisions. It also allows them to explore how to lower their costs by moving closer to where they work or to where there is public transit. The report is available at www.BayAreaBurden.org.”
— The Associated Press, 11/02/2009
“To provide a sustainable quality of life that will ensure that the Bay Area continues to attract the best and brightest workers—and the companies who employ them—we must accept and embrace the idea that land use, housing and transportation are one issue, not three. Only the regions that grasp this nexus, and act on it, will succeed in the new era.”
— Jim Wunderman, President & CEO, Bay Area Council
“A new study out now…showing that we spend a lot of our income on housing and transportation and that there’s not enough money left for other basic needs…”
— KRON TV News (NBC San Francisco)
“As evidence of the importance of their goals, proponents will use the study and a model they call “location efficiency,” a metric that shows lower cost burdens in places such as San Francisco and Alameda counties because of the proximity of residents to job clusters and public transit.”
— The Oakland Tribune, 11/4/2009
“The cost of living, in particular housing, continues to be a top impediment to living and doing business in Silicon Valley and across the Bay Area. This new report and cost calculator tool from the Terwilliger Center puts a spotlight on the impact of these costs and will help drive planning policies that encourage sustainable communities, lessen gridlock and start to minimize the burdens felt by working families today.”
— Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group
“Case in point: a fifth of all Bay Area homeowners spend more than half of all their income on housing, compared to the nation’s 12 percent of homeowners. This, and other fun facts, at the website, along with guilt-tripping calculator.”
— Curbed SF blog, 11/5/2009
“Finally we have a clear way of understanding the household savings that come from efficient land use. The Bay Area has the highest housings costs in the country. But the parts of the Bay Area that are dense enough to have good transit and local stores allow households to save so much money on transportation that the overall cost of living isn’t quite as bad. This opens up two fronts for advocates of sustainable communities: in addition to trying to build housing for all income levels, we can focus on getting the right land uses to enable low-cost transportation.”
— Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director, San Francisco Planning+Urban Research
