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L.A. Wins The Award For Most Unaffordable Housing In The Nation
This is one first-place award we sure aren't bragging about. A new study revealed that L.A. has the most unaffordable housing in the nation.
Half of the households in the L.A., Long Beach and Anaheim areas together spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, according to Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The study includes both homeowners and renters. If that doesn't already sound like a lot, the study also revealed that a quarter of our area's population is handing over more than half of their income for shelter.
According to the study (and our increasing anxiety as the first of the month approaches), spending 30 percent of your income on housing is considered a burden, and spending 50 percent or more is a severe burden.
"Pretty much all other necessity spending is getting crowded out," Dan McCue, research manager at the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, told the L.A. Times. "Food, clothing, healthcare, you name it. There's just less to go around."
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You might be wondering how we beat out cities like New York City and San Francisco that are notorious for their high housing costs. The trick is that income to housing ratios were considered in this study. It turns out people in those cities are actually better off, because they're on average making a lot more than Angelenos. The Bay Area came in 32nd place and New York in 7th. As KPCC pointed out, while San Francisco housing on average costs about $1,650 a month versus the $1,420 in our city, the Bay Area folks are making a whopping median of $73,700 a year compared to our $56,800.
We, of course, know as Angelenos that this is the price to pay in living in a city where it's sunny and there's pressed juice at every corner. But if you're trying to get the most bang for your buck, you might want to consider trekking over to North or South Dakota.
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