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