A Casual Model of Barriers and Incentives to Affordable Housing in Southern Rural Communities: Housing Affordability

Abstract

The need for affordable housing for low-and moderate-income households in both rural and urban areas of the United States continues to be a major concern in the 1990s. One objective of the S-194 Southern Region Housing Research Project “Barriers and Incentives to Affordable Housing” was to test a proposed causal model delineating interrelationships and interactions of specific household and community characteristics on the availability and utilization of the community’s housing stock. This manuscript describes the results of the regression analyses for affordability, one of the model components of the three housing stock dependent variables. Data for 28 communities were collected from a variety of sources including census reports; community datasheets; interviews with community officials; and mailed surveys to samples of residents (households), housing leaders (persons concerned and active in housing in the community), and intermediaries (lenders, realtors, builders, and others involved in the housing industry). In most communities few respondents were actually experiencing rent burdens; however, a majority of respondents could qualify for homeownership assistance. Separate stepwise regressions were performed using rental and ownership affordability ratios as dependent variables. The variables turnback funds per 100 persons, household’s attitudes toward building regulations, lender’s attitudes, and apartment demand were found to contribute 83% of the variance for the ownership affordability model. Intermediaries’ and leaders’ perceptions of lenders’ attitudes and housing programs existing in the community were found to account for 48% of the variance in the renter affordability ratio model.

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Notes on contributors

Rosemary Carucci Goss

Rosemary Carucci Goss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Housing, Interior Design, and Resource Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg.