The Surprising Affordability of Some Gateway Cities

The Urban Institute will be taking space at 500 L’Enfant Plaza when it delivers.

WASHINGTON, DC–The Urban Institute recently developed the housing affordability for renters index (HARI), a measure that examines the 20 most-populous US metropolitan statistical areas. HARI, which the Urban Institute developed in response to what it felt was a critical flaw in housing affordability measurements, found a few surprises about some of these cities, write Laurie Goodman and June Zhu in a blog post.

Namely: San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, are more affordable for local renters than other measures indicate. The index also shows that, nationwide, more than one in four renters have incomes that put homeownership within reach.