SAVI Reports | Page 9

alongside relevant data for Central Indiana, Marion County, and Indianapolis; these data often will be drawn from the SAVI community information system, developed and maintained by the Polis Center at IUPUI. Affordable Housing and Subsidized Housing Definitions Affordable housing is defined as housing that is within the means of the householder and his or her family; by definition, what is affordable varies from individual to individual and family to family. There are differing opinions on the threshold at which housing becomes affordable. Prior to the 2007-09 recession, purchasing a home three times a household’s gross annual salary was often cited, perhaps misguidedly, as a reasonable assumption. More nuanced approaches sought to examine debt-income ratios, with one common measure being the 28/36 rule, which states that you can spend up to 28 percent of your gross income on total housing expenses and should spend no more than 36 percent on total debt service. For the purposes of reporting by the US Census Bureau, cost-burdened families are defined as those spending more than 30 percent of household income on housing related expenses; households spending more than 5o percent are considered to be severely cost-burdened. Figure 1 and Figure 2 examine the percent of households in Marion County experiencing a housing cost-burden and a severe cost-burden, respectively. Figure 1. Housing Cost Burden (2014) 5 Source: Census.gov