DATA RELEASE DETAILS HOUSING AFFORDABILITY FOR WORKERS IN A RANGE OF JOBS IN 200+ U.S. METRO AREAS
Report places special focus on jobs for travel and tourism workers
On Thursday, August 15, 2013, the Center for Housing Policy will release the latest edition of Paycheck to Paycheck – a database that compares the wages of workers in 76 occupations against the costs of buying or renting a home in 207 U.S. metro areas – along with an accompanying suite of materials including a report and fact sheets. This edition of Paycheck focuses on workers key to Americans' summer vacation plans, and whether their jobs pay enough to enable these travel and tourism workers to afford the cost of housing.
Center researchers Maya Brennan and Janet Viveiros, authors of Paycheck to Paycheck, dig through the data to discover how trends in wages, rents, home prices and interest rates are affecting housing affordability for travel-related workers. The report, Paycheck to Paycheck 2013: A Snapshot of Metropolitan Housing Affordability for Travel and Tourism Workers, looks at wages for front desk managers, auto mechanics, housekeepers, wait staff, and flight attendants—five jobs related to the travel and tourism industry with earnings that range from less than $20,000 to more than $80,000 per year. To see whether these workers are able to make ends meet, average wages of these occupations in various housing markets are compared to fair-market rents on one- and two-bedroom apartments and the monthly mortgage payment on a median-priced home in each market. The resulting analysis provides insight into whether these workers can afford to rent or buy typical housing in their metro areas.
The new report, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, draws from home price data from the National Association of Home Builders and Fair Market Rents from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The data and report are embargoed until release on August 15, 2013. Please reply or email Blake Warenik at bwarenik@nhc.org for an embargoed copy of the report and accompanying release including links to the updated database.
# # #