Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research pp 2971–2975Cite as

Housing Affordability

  • Reference work entry

Synonyms

Affordable housing; Rent-geared-to-income

Definition

Housing affordability broadly refers to the cost of housing services and shelter – both for renters and owner occupiers – relative to a given individual’s or household’s disposable income. While there is no universal definition for this term, housing affordability is an easy concept to grasp in general. At the same time, affordability can be hard to pin down in practice, especially in terms of defining the appropriate geographic scope for housing markets, suitable definitions of representative reference individuals and households, and their changing circumstances over time. In its most crude form, housing affordability simply refers to the rent-to-income ratio or house-price-to-income ratio; more sophisticated measures of housing affordability consider (1) how much nonhousing expenditures are limited by how much is left after paying for housing or (2) in addition to “income affordability,” they distinguish between “purchase...

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   6,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   8,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Albouy, D. Y. (2008). Are big cities bad places to live? Estimating quality-of-life across metropolitan areas. NBER Working Paper No. 14472, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ambrose, B. W., & Thibodeau, T. G. (2004). Have the GSE affordable housing goals increased the supply of mortgage credit? Regional Science and Urban Economics, 34(3), 263–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bank for International Settlements. (2011). 81st annual report, Basel: Switzerland, p. 20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bieri, D. S., & Dawkins, C. J. (2012). Housing affordability with local wage and price variation. University of Michigan and University of Maryland, Unpublished Mimeograph.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blomquist, G. C. (2006). Measuring quality of life. In R. J. Arnott & D. P. McMillen (Eds.), A companion to urban economics (pp. 483–502). New York, NY: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blomquist, G. C., Berger, M. C., & Hoehn, J. P. (1988). New estimates of quality of life in urban areas. American Economic Review, 78(1), 89–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, L., Pollakowski, H. O., & Zabel, J. E. (2009). Amenity-based housing affordability indexes. Real Estate Economics, 37(4), 705–746.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gan, Q., & Hill, R. J. (2009). Measuring housing affordability: Looking beyond the median. Journal of Housing Economics, 18(2), 115–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser, E. L., & Gyourko, J. E. (2008). Rethinking federal housing policy: How to make housing plentiful and affordable. Washington: The AEI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyourko, J. E., Kahn, M. E., & Tracy, J. (1999). Quality of life and environmental comparisons. In P. C. Cheshire & E.S. Mills (Eds.), Handbook of regional and urban economics: applied urban economics (Vol. 3, pp. 1413–1454). Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyourko, J. E., & Tracy, J. (1991). The structure of local public finance and the quality of life. Journal of Political Economy, 99(4), 774–806.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hulchanski, J. D. (1995). The concept of housing affordability: Six contemporary uses of the housing expenditure-to-income ratio. Housing Studies, 10(4), 471–792.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lambiri, D., Biagi, B., & Royuela, V. (2007). Quality-of-life in the economic and urban economic literature. Social Indicators Research, 84(1), 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quigley, J. M., & Raphael, S. (2004). Is housing unaffordable? Why isn’t It more affordable? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 191–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roback, J. (1982). Wages, rents, and the quality of life. Journal of Political Economy, 90(6), 1257–1278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, S. (1979). Wage-based indexes of urban quality of life. In P. M. Mieszkowski & M. R. Straszheim (Eds.), Current issues in urban economics (pp. 74–104). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, M. E. (2008). What is housing affordability? The case for the residual income approach. Housing Policy Debate, 17(1), 151–184.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Michigan, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd, 48109-2069, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    David S. Bieri

Authors
  1. David S. Bieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David S. Bieri .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

  2. (residence), Brandon, MB, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Bieri, D.S. (2014). Housing Affordability. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1329

Download citation

search

Navigation