Search Results (3)

This study integrates the price-to-income ratio (PIR) with Pareto distribution characteristics to provide a novel approach for evaluating home affordability across U.S. counties. The methodology offers a new lens for the analysis of home affordability by capturing both the extreme values and central tendencies of PIR. The study normalizes the resulting Pareto parameters to a common scale and integrates data from the Zillow Home Value Index and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SAIPE program to create a single affordability index. The findings point to significant regional differences: coastal and urban regions, such as California and New York, face significant affordability challenges, whereas the Midwest, especially Kansas, has higher affordability. The results highlight the significance of targeted policy interventions and are consistent with the body of research on systemic risk and housing market dynamics. This study also opens new avenues for future research, including the impact of economic factors on affordability and cross-regional comparative studies. The suggested approach encourages more equitable access to housing by providing policymakers with a useful tool to track and manage challenges related to housing affordability. Full article

The housing price-to-income ratio (PIR) is an important indicator for measuring the health of the real estate market and detecting residents’ housing affordability. Including data of 336 cities in China from 2009 to 2020 as the research unit, the PIR’s spatial and temporal evolution characteristics are explored by using the urban rank-size rule and Markov chain, and its influencing factors are explored using the random forest model. The results show the following: (1) The PIR is in a normal distribution pattern, and there was a significant positive spatial correlation, which tended to increase. (2) Spatially, the PIR shows an overall distribution trend of “high in the east and low in the west”, and a rising trend of fluctuation is shown in the average PIR. (3) The PIR’s time evolution has high stability. China’s urban PIR is primarily the stable type from 2009 to 2015 and mainly the upward transfer type from 2015 to 2020. (4) The influence of economic, demographic, social, and expected factors on the PIR decreases, among which real estate investment density, industrial structure level, residents’ consumption level, and real estate activity are the dominant factors enhancing trends and showing a complex nonlinear relationship. Full article

The government of Rwanda recently passed housing development regulations and funding schemes which aim at promoting access to affordable houses for the low- and middle-income Kigali city inhabitants. The existing studies on housing affordability in this city did not yet discuss whether this government-supported programme is likely to promote access to housing for these target beneficiaries. This study applies the price-to-income ratio (PIR) approach and the 30-percent of household income standard through the bank loan to assess whether housing units developed in the framework of affordable housing schemes are, for the target recipients, affordable at all. It relies mainly on housing prices schemes held by real estate developers, data on households’ incomes collected through the household survey and a review of the existing studies and socio-economic censuses reports. Findings reveal that the developed housing units are seriously and severely unaffordable for most of the target beneficiaries, especially the lowest-income urban dwellers, due to the high costs of housing development, combined with the high profits expected by real estate developers. The study suggests policy and practical options for promoting inclusive urban (re)development and housing affordability for various categories of Kigali city inhabitants. These options include upgrading the existing informal settlements, combined with their conversion into shared apartments through the collaboration between property owners and real estate developers, the development of affordable rental housing for the low-income tenants, tax exemption on construction materials, progressive housing ownership through a rent-to-own approach, and incremental self-help housing development using the low-cost local materials. Full article