Havel Ruck Projects: Inversion (Dan Havel and Dean Ruck), Houston, TX
I've been doing a lot of complaining when it comes to home affordability in New York City. I realize it can become a broken record. If I were talking to myself, one of the first things I'd say is "stop whining and move!" No surprise, there are plenty of places in America that provide affordable homes for middle class millennials. However, in Derek Thompson's recent article for The Atlantic, it turns out that those cities most likely have the worst social mobility for young people just trying to find their come up. "When good jobs for the middle class and affordable homes are living in different cities, it represents a slow-motion splintering of the American Dream."
What a graphic comment. Is my potential American Dream splintered?! If so, where do they keep the sandpaper in this country?
Thompson compared two studies, one done by Jed Kolko, Chief Economist and VP of Analytics at Trulia, on metro area home affordability and another done by Raj Chetty, Harvard Economist, on intergenerational mobility - "that is, the odds that low-income households can work their way into the middle class and above." The maps below show the direct contrast, the first, Chetty's map of economic opportunity, the second, Kolko's map of affordable housing by city. In both cases red is NOT good.
When Kolko looked at sub-markets, individual counties within metro areas, Manhattan was declared the #1 least affordable location for the middle class with only 2% of for-sale homes being affordable. Brooklyn came in at #3 with a mere 12% of for-sale homes being within reach.
*Kolko defines "affordable" as whether the monthly payment, including mortgage, insurance and property taxes is less than 31% of the metro area's median household income.
"There are only three cities in the United States with (a) at least 50 percent of houses affordable to middle-class millennials and (b) a top-10 finish in Chetty's mobility calculations." Drumroll... Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. I had no idea they were stockpiling sandpaper in the Steel City. And why is Minneapolis hoarding from its twin St. Paul? Utah was never on our radar, but maybe it should be???