Report: Housing in R.I. remains out of reach for many

RHODE ISLAND communities made no progress toward increasing the affordability of housing last year, HousingWorks Rhode Island at Roger Williams University said Friday in its annual Fact Book. / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RHODE ISLAND
RHODE ISLAND communities made no progress toward increasing the affordability of housing last year, HousingWorks Rhode Island at Roger Williams University said Friday in its annual Fact Book. / COURTESY HOUSINGWORKS RHODE ISLAND

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island communities made no progress toward increasing the affordability of housing last year, HousingWorks Rhode Island at Roger Williams University said Friday in its annual Fact Book.
The percentage of the state’s housing stock that met state affordability standards was 8.28 percent last year, identical to 2012’s rate, according to the Fact Book. And the same five communities – Central Falls, Newport, New Shoreham, Providence and Woonsocket – met the statutory goal of having 10 percent of its housing stock affordable under the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Act.
The focus of the Fact Book, HousingWorks’ first since its affiliation with Roger Williams, were comparisons in the share of household income going to housing between 2000 and 2012.
Due to rising real estate prices early in the decade and falling real incomes, the share of homeowners spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing rose 14 percent between 2000 and 2012 and 53 percent for middle-income homeowners, the Fact Book said.
Middle income renters saw a 17 percent increase in spending on housing and 3 percent decline in their incomes between 2002 and 2012.
HousingWorks estimates that more than 130,000 Rhode Island households are housing-cost-burdened – meaning it takes up more than 30 percent of their income – which diverts $927 million that could be spent elsewhere in the economy annually.

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