A report prepared by the Regional Plan Association confirms that local house prices on Long Island are increasingly elevated relative to incomes. And, residents are nervous about what this means for them:
Long Islanders are ever more anxious about how they can maintain their lifestyle, the report found. An affordable home — defined as costing no more than $254,500, or two and a half times the 2009 median income for the region — “has become a rare commodity.” Average pay is at a 10-year low, down 3 percent from 2000, while average wages across the nation have grown 4 percent.
Here’s why:
• Over the last decade, private sector jobs have declined by 27,000 as job losses between 2007 and 2010 negated all of the gains from earlier in the decade.
• Average pay per employee is at a 10-year low, down 3% from 2000. Over the same period, average wages in the United States have grown by 4%.
• In 2009, there were 15% fewer 25-to-34-year-olds than there were in 2000, a larger decline than in any other part of the New York metropolitan region and in contrast to a 5% gain for the nation.
• Households paying more than 35% of their income for housing rose from 27% of all households in 2000 to 38% in 2009.
• From 2000 to 2009, Long Island issued new permits for only 15 housing units per year for each 1,000 residents, compared to 25 for other suburban areas of the New York region.
Home Affordability
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Sources:
Getting It Done
Aligning Long Island’s Development Processes with Sustainable Economic Growth
Regional Plan Association, January 2011
http://www.longislandindex.org/fileadmin/Reports_and_Maps/2011_Index/Getting_it_Done_2011_LI_Index_Special_Analysis.pdf
Addressing the Issue of Home Affordability
MARCELLE S. FISCHLER
NYT, January 27, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/realestate/30lizo.html
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