The Partnership for Stronger Communities Releases Report on Connecticut’s Housing Market

The Partnership for Stronger Communities (PSC), a Connecticut affordable housing policy and advocacy nonprofit, recently released a report providing a snapshot of the state’s housing market and analyzing how it affects low- and middle-income families.  The report, titled “Housing in CT 2014: The Latest Measures of Affordability,” highlights a number of Connecticut-specific trends, including the following:

• the share of households that rent increased from 30% in 2007 to 34% in 2013; 
• the “housing wage,” what one must earn to afford a typical two-bedroom apartment, fell slightly from $23.22 per hour in 2012 to $23.02 per hour in 2013, but remained the 8th highest nationally; 
• multifamily housing production returned to levels seen just before the 2008 housing market crash, but single-family production remained stagnant (see PSC’s table, below); and
• overall homelessness declined between 2012 and 2013 by 4%, but the number of adult-only households experiencing chronic homelessness declined even more, by 10% (see PSC’s table, below).

The report notes that some of these statistics, such as the increase in renter households, may partly result from shifting demographics.  Much of today’s housing market is made up of millennials and downsizing baby boomers, both of whom often prefer multi-family housing to single-family housing.