Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Inclusionary Zoning and Assessments

[Pastor Liz (pastorlizm]

I have the spreadsheet, is there a way to make that available to
people on the list?

Yes, when a home is "affordable" meanign 80% of median income, that is
not reaching exactly who we wthink it is. We have interesting
perceptions of money!

But using your example, i'll note that that is an interesting perception too.

My house was around $400K, and I put 20% down, so I needed a family
income of around 107K to be approved for that mortgage.
While I don't feel "wealthy" $107K is no where near the median income
of this area. (While our community is 50 minutes from boston we count
as part of Worcester, but still the median income of boston is not
$107K either!)

The same home as mine is also available as an affordable home to
people who make less than 80% of median income: that is, they make
less than about $56,000. (the actuall requirement is at
www.sawyerhill.org/40B )
The house is $173,000 for the "affordable" version.

The median income in the whole US is around $50,000 right now, so my
household (when we bought hte house) made TWICE that. Of course it
varies widely by geography, and is further complicated that actual
stats define household size (that is that median is $X for a family of
4 typically.)

-Liz
at Mosaic Commons, where we have affordable homes (80% of AMI) available now!!!
1, 2, and 3 BR homes at www.sawyerhil.org/40B
Join us in Berlin, MA.


On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Sharon Villines
<sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 18 Jul 2012, at 12:43 PM, Elizabeth Magill wrote:
>
>> So starting with the salary, the common mortgage rates in the area and other 
>> details, we worked backward to set the home price. Condo fee was included in 
>> that calculation, we had to make it so a person at 80% AMI wiht a good 
>> credit rating could be approved for the mortgage.
>
> Is this formula available? I know the formula for figuring out what is 
> "affordable" varies from place to place but a common  misperception is that 
> "affordable" means "low income". It only means 80% of average income in most 
> places while low income is in people's perceptions much lower than that.
>
> If the average home price in an area is $400,000 and a person with an average 
> income for the area would be able to buy that house, someone making 80% of 
> that would be able to buy a house costing 80% of $400,000 or $320,000. Still 
> a chunk of change that many could not afford.
>
> It helps to see the actual numbers.
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
>
>
>
>
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--
-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
Worcester Fellowship
www.worcesterfellowship.org
508-450-0431