75-057 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

In 1968, when Congress pledged to the nation 26 million units of housing, including 6 million for low- and moderate- income families,, it was both an acknowledgement of this country's housing problems and a commitment to solve them. Yet seven years later, the housing crisis is more severe, enveloping middle- income familes, as well as low- and moderate-income households. Workers frequently.find themselves caught in the middle with incomes that are slightly too high to enable them to get govern- ment assistance, but too low to obtain housing in the private market. The basic problem is that only a limited.supply of ade- quate housing is available at a reasonable cost and in a suit- able living environment. The.cost of new housing continues to rise, while ~he Supply of existing housing dimihishes in rela-~ tion to the growing population. Low- and moderate-income · households find fewer opportunities for decent housing in older cities such. as Santa Aha, but continue to be restricted in the newer, cities SUch as Irvine with their newer housing stock and higher-~ncome families. Middle class households presently enjoy greater options, but rising costs threaten to eliminate many of these choices. QUANTITATIVE DEMAND Estimates'of the projected demand for new.housing are concerned with both fhe~quantitative andqualitative aspects of demand. These estimates necessarily must be made in sequence since they cannot be made simultaneously in one operation; the quantitative estimates necessarily precede Zhe estimates of qualitative distribution. In the sense used in' housing economics, demand is pri- marily a functioh of growth. In conventional economic terms, it woUld, refer to all units entering into exchange. Analysts of housing markets, however, are concerned primarily with the new units entering the market and only secondarily with exchanges in the existing stock. Although they reflect the market, the transactions in the existing stock are studied primarily for their controlling'effect upon the incremental rate of new supply. Thus, when housing market analysts speak of demand, the term generally is restricted to the demand fox new' construction. · The quantitative demand for new residential units, is derived from conclusions respecting the rate of household formation, modified by adjustments originating in other factors operating in the market. The number of additional households anticipated during the forecast period is premised, of course, upon an analysis of prospective 00008,1