Texas Housing Facts

Affordable Housing needs are growing every day. Studies show that housing costs continue to rise while incomes grow at a much slower pace. With almost half of Texans spending more than 30% of their household income on housing costs, the need for Affordable Housing is more important now than ever before. However, current policies do not go far enough to fill the gap of affordable units needed. For example, in Texas, there are just 30 units available per 100 Extremely Low Income (ELI) renters (according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition 2018 Gap Report). Extremely Low Income is defined as households with income at or below the Poverty Guideline or 30% of AMI, whichever is higher. This statistic, however, doesn’t include the population of Very Low Income and Low Income Households defined as households earning 31% – 80% of Area Median Income.

Affordable Housing Initiatives in Major Texas Metros

Austin

In 2012, the City of Austin adopted their Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan which provides a framework for its community goals by 2039, the 200th anniversary of the city’s founding. A building block of this plan is housing and neighborhood policies. Aligning with this plan and CodeNext, Austin’s Strategic Housing Blueprint lays down the city’s plan to provide affordable housing in every city council district.

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Dallas

In 2017, the Dallas City Council Housing Committee established goals to address housing affordability throughout the city, promote fair housing, and overcome historical patterns of segregation and concentrations of poverty. The culmination of this work is Dallas’ Comprehensive Housing Policy.

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Ft. Worth

The City of Fort Worth Planning and Development Department publishes their guide for making decisions about the city’s growth and development. Included in their Comprehensive Plan is the city’s housing assessment with goals and objectives and policies and strategies. In addition, Fort Worth Housing Solutions releases quarterly news letters and published a 2018 Assessment of Fair Housing for the city.

2018 Comprehensive Plan

Houston

The City of Houston faced one the most devastating natural disasters in 2017, Hurricane Harvey. Their rebuilding efforts have been most salient and will continue for years to come. Their Housing and Community Development Department (HCDD) provides leadership and financing to make homes affordable and facilitate neighborhood revitalization.

In addition, the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University is a think tank that focuses on urban issues through informed research, data and policy analysis. The Institute published a report on how to build a resilient and equitable housing system from the remnants of a natural disaster.

Action Plan for Disaster Recovery

San Antonio

In 2017, the City of San Antonio – Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force published their roadmap to address the affordability gap by creating a housing system where sustainable, affordable, quality housing is provided by the private sector and market-driven. See their Housing Policy Framework.

Housing Policy Framework

How Affordable Housing Helps Texans

Housing Studies

Analyzing the Impact of Lowering the 50% Test for 4% Tax-Exempt Bond-Financed Properties

This week, NCSHA published a report showing how lowering the “financed-by” threshold — commonly referred to as the 50 percent test — for bond-financed Housing Credit projects would impact available Private Activity Bond cap and could increase multifamily affordable housing production.

Study: Filtering of Apartment Housing between 1980 and 2018

A better understanding of the detailed nature of our housing affordability challenges is more important than ever as the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the finances of millions of Americans which will further exacerbate the shortage of workforce housing that pre-dated...

Texans Spending Too Much on Housing

Texans say they are spending too much on housing. New statewide poll results released found nearly half of Texas adults say it is difficult for them to find affordable housing in the area where they live, and a similar share believe they spend too much of their income on housing. The independent poll was conducted by the Texas Lyceum, the 40-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan leadership organization.

Report: Over 1.7 Million Texas Households Housing are Cost-Burdened

In Texas the report shows that the number of households that were moderately or severely housing cost burdened has grown from 1.3 million in 2008 to over 1.7 million by 2018.

“Don’t Put It Here!” Does Affordable Housing Cause Nearby Property Values to Decline?

This policy brief summarizes the conclusions of several reviews and critiques of the growing body of research on whether subsidized affordable housing for low- to moderate-income residents causes nearby property values to decline. It also highlights some of the most recent work in this area carried out by researchers.

Harris County Moves to Influence Housing Tax Credit Applications for Affordable Housing

Harris County is planning a strategy to attempt to influence housing tax credit applications to get more applications approved for affordable housing desperately needed in the area.

Minimum Wage Workers Can’t Afford Apartments in Texas

According to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a person working full time would need to earn $16.51 per hour in order to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment in Texas.

Freddie Mac: Diminishing Housing Affordability is Inescapable

Freddie Mac tracks multifamily rental affordability at the unit level by comparing area median income (AMI) data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) with rent data from the American Community Survey (ACS)i. The basic finding is that population growth is negatively correlated with an area’s ability to preserve affordable housing.