See Where $41K of Your Money Goes Every Year
The Bay Area is expected to grow by 1.6 million people in the next 25 years
By LORI PREUITT
Updated 6:00 AM PST, Thu, Nov 5, 2009
You know it's expensive to live in the Bay Area, but when you look at the results of a new Bay Area-wide study, the facts slaps you in the face like a splash of cold water.
The study looked at how we spend our hard earned cash and found more than half of it goes toward housing and transportation.
Bay Area housing costs are among the highest in the nation. The group found one in five homeowners spend more than half of their income on housing. The national average shows one in about 10 homeowners do that.
When you see the dollar amount, it hits you even harder. The report by the Urban Land Institute found we spend on average $41,420 per year, or 59 percent of our median income on where we live and how we get around.
And yes, that is worse than the rest of the country. The group did a similar study in the D.C. area back in February and found homeowners there spent an average of 47 percent on housing and transportation.
Urban and Land Institute found a quarter of all households live in neighborhoods where the costs account for 65 percent or more of the income. It found that to be an "extreme housing and transportation cost burden."
"These findings reinforce that years of ever-sprawling development have resulted in a growing gap between where people live and where they work," said ULI Terwilliger Center Chairman J. Ronald Terwillliger.
The new study found the Bay Area's high transportation and housing costs leave many residents without the money to pay for health care, education and in some cases food.
The report breaks it down by county. In the South Bay, housing and transportation cost 54 percent of the household income and in the North Bay it is more like 66 percent.
The study was released to coincide with the Urban Land Institute's annual fall meeting this week in San Francisco.
If you click on this link you will find a "Housing and Transportation Calculator." You can put in your home address and find out the average costs for your neighborhood. It's a new way to see if you are in fact keeping up with the Jones'.
First Published: Nov 4, 2009 5:39 PM PST
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