The 2024 Terwilliger Center Home Attainability Index (HAI) features a full set of interactive data visualization tools that can help ULI members unpack housing challenges nationwide and specifically for their locale.
Developed by ULI in partnership with consulting firm RCLCO, the index was created with the goal of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating housing-related data to support the broad range of ULI members and industry practitioners working to address longstanding home affordability challenges.
Here are some of the new tools that will help you slice and dice the data:
- An Excel file allowing users to play with relationships between different housing variables and compare peer MSAs
- A web map that allows for a more granular analysis of not just markets, but housing attainability trends on the county and even census tract level
- Interactive data visualizations that allow users to easily toggle trends for different market cohorts
The first two tools in the list are far more specific for each query and better suited for individualized exploration. However, the interactive data visualizations are a great tool to explore narratives and trends in housing while flipping quickly from market to market.
Production impacts affordability
It’s important to see the numbers that backup that accepted fact. First, see how the percentage of housing permits in U.S. markets is not keeping up with the growth in demand for households.
Hover over individual data points to see which market it represents, and cycle through the buttons at the top to view this trend broken out by cohort.
You can also use the drop-down menu to view your market or a market of interest.
Now, look at the data around housing production and affordability. You can swap between cohorts using the top buttons, and hover over data points to see their specific breakdown.
A larger overview of housing costs
This is a two-part interactive chart. On the first drop-down menu, choose the market you want to analyze (or choose “All” to see a comparison between the top markets). Then, in the second drop-down, choose what metric you want to see.
By breaking it down by cost-to-rent per bedroom, and percent down on a home, this visual can provide a tactile representation of the cost of housing in a given market.
For sale and rental affordability move in tandem, affecting cost burdened households
When looking at area median income (AMI) spent on housing, rent and ownership move together in a linear fashion, revealing that where the cost-to-own is high, so is cost-to-rent.
For a look at renting versus owning cost, this tool provides a proportion comparing the renting versus owning for each market in the index. You can look at your market’s ratio, and then use the drop-down to view others and see how they compare.
Manipulate the visualization below to see how affordability compares between regions and cities within the regions.
Notice that affordability is lowest in the West region, and highest in the North and Midwest.
That also aligns with the amount of cost-burdened households in an area. See below where cost-burdened households are organized by reason, and then view the overall trend.
Racial and economic integration
The Theil Index indicates levels of racial disparity. So, a higher number on the Theil Index means more racial disparity and more segregation. The Theil Index is used a lot in the HAI data visualization tool to demonstrate how markets perform in racial and economic integration.
Take the graph below, for example. You’ll see that it demonstrated how markets with a higher Theil Index score have a lower economic middle-income tract. This demonstrates a relationship between racial integration and economic cohorts.
This carries over to homeownership. The higher the Theil Index score, the larger the divide between Black and white home ownership.
Cycle between regions to see the differences in the homeownership gap. Notice that the West and Southwest typically have a lower gap than the North and Midwest.
To see a breakdown of individual markets, use the drop-down menu in the next visualization to compare the gap in homeownership between Black and white and Latino and white cohorts. Choose your own market, or pick another to compare.
Commuting and affordability
There’s also a relationship between affordability and the time it takes to get to work. As time it takes to commute increases, so does the amount of cost-burdened households.
By toggling between cohorts in the graph, it also becomes evident these relationships can have slight variation in the trend based on which cohort a market belongs.
The concept in the visualization above is broken out by correlation coefficient in this table as well. Darker colors indicate a stronger relationship, blue being positive and red being a negative relationship. Hover over each box to see its individual R value.
Overall, the HAI Data Visualizations tool—as well as its Excel and Web Map tools—aim to provide ULI’s members and stakeholders with engaging ways to view and analyze the current state of housing in the United States.
Continue to explore and utilize the HAI and its tools, as well as register for the upcoming webinar, and dive deeper into housing attainability.
