Forget buying -- low-wage workers can barely afford rent (Seattle PI)

[icymist]

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Forget buying -- low-wage workers can barely afford rent

By CAROL SMITH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

In Seattle, if you're earning the minimum wage, you have to work 90 hours a week to afford to rent an average two-bedroom unit, let alone buy one.

<snip>

Locally, the Housing Development Consortium says nearly three-quarters of renter households in King County earning less than $13 an hour are paying more than 30 percent of their income for housing -- meaning their shelter costs are eating up a disproportionate share of their budget.

Even those households earning the median income level are struggling with housing.

The median annual income for a family of four in King County is $72,250. According to the Center for Housing Policy, it would take an annual income of $76,350 -- more than $4,000 above the median -- to qualify for a $245,000 home in the Seattle metropolitan area. The difficulty for would-be homeowners is that the median home price in King County is now $355,000.

"There is a growing chasm between the landed gentry -- those who can afford to own homes -- and those who can't save enough to even get started in the market," said Mack McCoy, a real estate agent in Ballard.

(More)
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/224532_overextendhousing17.html

[getmeouttahere]

1. I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone....

who lives in Seattle...or San Fran Bay Area...or Los Angeles.

And of course this means that these people have to live with multiple room/housemates, or they have to live far away from where they work, which means more commuting costs....

[MountainLaurel]

3. More commuting costs

And more traffic congestion as well as a longer rush hour. Plus, less community in the workplace, because you've got some people who come into the office at 6 am and leave at 3 pm to deal with their commute or work from home. Not to mention the family costs: penalties when you pick up your kid at daycare late because of an accident, less time just hanging out with your family, more stress, less time to volunteer in your community, etc.

[shanti]

16. roommates

are a fact of life for many many people in california.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Ditto for DC

A study was published several months ago about the areas in the Metro area where public servants such as teachers and police could afford to rent, on average. Maps showed that at this point the only areas in that category are at least 20 or 30 miles out of the city. The choices are live in a gang- and drug-infested community, live an hour's commute from your job, or move in with mom or with four roommates.

[NorCalDem]

4. I've been saying for awhile now....

The housing market is getting worse and worse, and now with higher prices and tougher bankruptcy laws, people are going to be seriously hard-pressed to afford homes. When 75% of the population is homeless, or on the verge of being homeless due to ridiculously high rent/mortgage payments, that's when the revolution will begin.

[rodeodance]

5. MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY IT IS A BAD TIME TO FIND A QUALITY JOB:

a related item of interest.


http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=691577

MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY IT IS A BAD TIME TO FIND A QUALITY JOB: President Bush demonstrated yesterday how detached he is from the plight of the average worker. In heralding the statistically obvious fact that "ore Americans are working today than ever in our nation's history," Bush suggested the economy has never performed better for all Americans. Yet a Gallup Poll reports that "ewer than 4 in 10 Americans (38%) say now is a good time to find a quality job, while the majority of adults nationwide, 59%, say it is a bad time."

[HughBeaumont]

12. Lancelot Link's statement is stupid, but that's being redundant, isn't it?

As dumb as saying "there are more people on earth now than ever in our nation's history". Let's not even get into the fact that there could be multiple jobs being held by one person.

[icymist]

6. Oh Bush shit! The Rainbow people have been saying for years when the....

revolution will begin. HEY! If not now, then WHEN? Huh? Not much to say, huh? I thought so.

[Selatius]

7. I recommend forming renting collectives as a short-term answer

You may have to sacrifice a little convenience, but if splitting the rent 4 ways among roommates or even more is required to make the price affordable, it should be seriously considered.

As a long-term solution, rent control should be looked into. Ultimately, the housing market is overvalued. There will eventually be a "correction."

[getmeouttahere]

9. But how long before the correction comes?

Meantime, this just illustrates that the American Dream is an illusion, and unreachable for the vast majority of us. That's why it amazes me that I keep seeing more homes and condos going up in the L.A. area. Actually, all it means is that more and more people live beyond their means.

[Clovis Sangrail]

19. better yet

form buying collectives

For most people the only hope of ever owning 1st home is going to rely on pooling resources.
Find like minded individuals, draw up a contract, and try to buy a shared living space.

[jwirr]

8. I don't think there is an area

in the country that has affordable housing for low-income workers. I live in a small Minnesota community and the two housing projects in town have a 18 month waiting list and the reservation near here has at least 100 native families waiting for housing.

This is ridiculous. The least we should expect in this country is to be able to afford housing, food, heat and medical care for our families. If the employers do not want to pay a living wage then they should have left Aid For Dependant Children and Medicaid alone. It was subsidizing their employment needs but they did not even know it.

[inanna]

10. This just makes me sad.

It is just getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Seems to get worse by the day.

[Selteri]

11. It will only continue to get worse and worse

Housing will become more and more costly, it's insane how bad it's gotten worse and worse for rental too. At the moment I'm renting a place at a cost in TOLEDOT OHIO that was higher than the place I was renting in DENVER COLORADO even though I'm further into the outter areas of Toledo than I was in Denver, this after just 3 years difference in rent control.

[young_at_heart]

13. Reagan's legacy......the "us's and the them's"

Reagan's main weapon was a reversal in tax policy by which middle-income families, promised a tax cut, actually paid more, while the rich paid lower rates. Middle-class folks are now struggling in a big way and we are reaping the "benefits" of his policies.

[Anakin Skywalker]

14. Read the Book "Perfectly Legal"

by David Cay Johnston. It is about how the corporatists have rigged our tax system so that the super-rich pays nearly zero taxes while Joe Schmoe picks up the tab. I just found it today and it is worth spreading the word.

[Dave Reynolds]

15. That is why when I lived in Washington

and worked in Seattle I had a 2.5 hour (each way) commute.

[sadiesworld]

17. Yet, there are those on this board who insist...

that $90K is a fortune anywhere in this country. I'm sure all those good Seattle dems would be thrilled to pay more in SS tax so Bushco can continue to give tax breaks to his million and billionaire cronies. :eyes:

John Kerry wanted to protect those who make less than $200K per year from higher taxes, why don't DUers?

[KamaAina]

18. Just like in Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed"

would be a DU Book of the Month Club selection if we had such a thing. (Hmmm...)

She never got as far as Seattle, but the story is pretty much the same everywhere: low-wage workers (around $7/hr.) who can't pony up the deposits and such to rent a real place fork out even more of their meager paychecks for the privilege of living in crappy hotels at a weekly rate.

And what she was describing took place at the height of Clinton-era prosperity. It staggers the imagination to think what it must be like in Bushovia today. :scared:

[ScotTissue]

20. Nobody earning minimum wage can buy a house anywhere

This is news? The very poorest people have the most modest incomes and fewest assets. Houses are not cheap.

As a Seattle home owner with an OK (not great) wage, I understood this even when I was working for $200 a week.

[Tansy_Gold]

22. But wasn't the idea of "minimum" wage supposed to apply to

those who were just entering the job market, either because they were young and/or had no skills? And that eventually they would move up in the work world to where they could make a living wage?

And wasn't the minimum wage supposed to be at least a life-sustaining wage? That even if you were forced to live on it, you could somehow manage to get by?

Minimum wage hasn't changed in a long, long, long time, and more and more jobs are falling into the minimum wage category. If you were a secretary or a technician or even a data-entry clerk (we were called "coders" when I worked for an insurance company in the late 60s), you made substantially more than minimum wage.

But now that's about all there is. Everywhere. And more and more people without ANY income are competing even for those minimum wage jobs.

To translate some of those annual numbers into hourly figures --

$5.50/hour = $11,000/year
$75,000/year = $37.50/hour

So it would take approximately 5 1/2 $7/hour Wal-Martyrs to afford that house in Seattle.

[KamaAina]

26. "Wal-Martyrs"! Best DUism of the week

beating out BiggJawn's "oblivio-trons", a synonym for "sheeple". Should we be compiling a glossary of these neologisms?

"Commander Cuckoobananas" is disqualified, obviously, because it's really a Simpsons-ism.

[Tansy_Gold]

28. Credit for "Wal-Martyr" to Ehrenreich

When she autographed my copy of "Nickel and Dimed" she wrote:

"To a fellow Wal-Martyr"

She put in a couple weeks; I endured over a year.


Those who stay and LIKE IT are Wal-Martians. I lay claim to that one.

[MountainLaurel]

31. But not just minimum wage

In the DC area almost out to WV, people making $35K/year, such as teachers, can't afford a 1BR apartment, let alone purchase a home. In my old neighborhood, a 30-year-old, 670-sq.-ft., 1BR condo in a tolerably safe area that's a 20-minute bus ride from the Metro station goes for about $230K.

[ckramer]

21. But democrats are dead silence on this homeless making issue

What a shame.

They should make big noise on it national wide. Time to restrict the greedy landlords.

This is no capitalism, this is people eating people the 21 century way.

[Ksec]

23. 72 grand?

WTF? Most people around here make about 12 grand a year. Two people working they double that.

Im not kidding. People have been forced to live on these wages.

[Ksec]

25. Oh BTW Im in eastern Ohio

[BrendaStarr]

24. Barely! Forget it even

Many places a minimum wage earner can hardly afford a single apartment an still have transportationl, buy food, and pay utilities.

And there is not much saving with getting a couple of bedrooms and sharing.

[fortyfeetunder]

27. First, bust the housing bubble

I watch in dismay as housing prices in Seattle soar beyond the reach of the average taxpayer.

Since purchasing a home over a couple decades ago, watched the prices double, triple and now nearly quadruple from what they were back in the mid-80's.

The housing bubble needs a bust. But the repercussions are those who bought high and are stuck with a overpriced house and mortgage.

* is not thinking about those implications...

[Zomby Woof]

29. One of the main reasons I got the fuck out of Seattle

Too goddamned expensive. Pretty place, but too goddamned expensive.

[NVMojo]

30. the Robber Barons are firmly entrenched....