Fair Housing Requirements in the Nation's Largest Cities

The Coach recently examined fair housing requirements in 30 of the nation’s largest cities. The focus on local fair housing laws will only intensify in large cities—where the rental population is booming, but many struggle to find available units, according to a new report.

The NYU Furman Center/Capital One National Affordable Housing Landscape examined rental housing affordability trends in 11 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas (New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Houston; Philadelphia; Dallas; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Atlanta; and Miami) from 2006 to 2013 and illustrates how these trends affected renters as more households chose to rent amid rising rental costs. The report found that the supply of affordable rental housing failed to keep pace with demand in the 11 largest U.S. cities while rents rose faster than household incomes in five of them.

Nine of the 11 largest U.S. cities have seen falling vacancy rates and rising rents, which are hurting lower- and middle-income renters. “Affordable” rent should comprise less than 30 percent of a household’s income. With the exception of Dallas and Houston, the average renter in each metropolitan area could not afford the majority of recently available rental units in their city. The cities were even less affordable to low-income renters, who could afford no more than 11 percent of recently available units in the most affordable cities.

The NYU Furman Center/Capital One National Affordable Housing Landscape is available on its website here.

For more details about local fair housing requirements, see the July issue of Fair Housing Coach, “The Top 30: Fair Housing Requirements in the Nation’s Larges Cities,” available to our subscribers here.