Affordability and Inequality

Below draws on analysis from the paper, “Redistributive Majoritarianism” in Urban Affairs Review (summary of article here). I show levels of affordability across the AMI spectrum, drawing on the common “ratio approach” (paying more than 30% of income for housing) versus another “residual income” approach, which looks at whether people have enough to make ends meet after paying for housing costs.

I’ll be adding to this dashboard in the future, hopefully adding breakouts by job category, and trends over time. All the data is downloadable for your own perusal. If you have suggestions for specific items to add to this, please reach out to me with suggestions.

Note: The data here is based on the 2020-2024 ACS, while the paper is from the 2018-2022 ACS, so numbers will not be identical.