It’s just past Labor Day as I start this, an apropos time to look at what our labor affords us in terms of housing.
According to a recent study*, the annual wage needed to afford a 1 bedroom market rate rental in Columbia County, NY is slightly more than $38,000. To secure a 2 BR rental, the annual income needed is $44,280.
Let’s do some math.
The average hourly wage for renters in Columbia County in 2023 is $13.80, which works out to $2,208 per month or $28,704 per year, for a 40 hour work week. So there is a gap between what the average hourly worker earns, and what the market provides in terms of housing.
* - Wage and housing cost data courtesy of Hudson Valley Pattern For Progress’ “Out of Reach 2023” report. Affordability is defined as paying 30% or less of income for housing. Any computational or math errors are purely mine.
The figures are higher elsewhere in the NY Hudson Valley. In all nine counties covered in the study, the average wage continues to lag behind both the cost of living and the wage needed to afford rent.
This is an issue for a couple of reasons (there are more reasons, but I’ll control myself):
The availability of 1 and 2 bedroom rentals at the “market rate” is virtually nil. Those few that are available are often not well-maintained, nor do they include utilities in most cases.
We are not building many affordable rental units in our county. Certainly not in our towns, villages and hamlets. And we are surely not building starter homes anywhere at the scale that is needed.
To afford to own a home on the average wage, the gap is worse, much worse. In fact, it is nigh impossible.
The median income for a 4-person household in Columbia County is about $104,000; the average wage across the top industries in the County is about $50,000.
The median sale price for a home in Columbia County is now $450,000, and the median listing price is nearly $600,000. This has more than doubled in the past 5 years.
The average mortgage needed to afford the median-priced house in the county (including escrows for taxes and insurance, with 6% down) is $423,000.
The math does not work out for more and more of our resident workforce.
Added to that, the availability of homes for sale has continually declined since the pandemic. There are fewer houses available to buy at any price.
The bottom line: The average wage worker cannot afford to live in Columbia County (or elsewhere in the Hudson Valley) without their housing costs far exceeding what is affordable, EVEN IF THEY COULD FIND A SUITABLE HOME.
If the people who teach our children, work our farms, serve our coffee, draw our blood, maintain our streets, fight fires and staff our offices cannot find or afford housing in our communities, they seek out other places to work and raise their children. We see this in declining school enrollment and in the loss of population.
But the times, they are a-changing: There is much attention and even action emerging locally, regionally and state-wide that seeks to break the status quo. It will take many hands, hearts and heads to coming together to make change.
Next up: Reasons to be cheerful.
Facts.
Thanks for the clear analysis, Al. It’s a story that surely can be repeated in countless communities across the country -- and I look forward to your “solutions” piece. I imagine the task is fundamentally local, but needing a million hands.