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MTFP | Census Numbers Shed Light on Housing Crunch

A typical rule of thumb is that “affordable” housing costs its occupants no more than 30% of their pre-tax income — say, for example, no more than $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year for a single person with an annual salary of $40,000.

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    MTFP | Census Numbers Shed Light on Housing Crunch
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    Read the article at the Montana Free Press by Eric Dietrich
    Excerpt
    “Nearly all Montana renter and owner households with incomes of $50,000 or more, 89%, reported housing costs below that 30%-of-income threshold. Lower-income households, in comparison, often struggle. Of Montana renter households below the $50,000 income mark, 69% are cost-burdened with housing payments above the 30% threshold.
    That percentage, which equates to approximately 71,500 households, has risen by 9 percentage points over the last decade.
    Some caveats: Unlike the decennial census counts, which try to reach almost every U.S. resident directly, American Community Survey numbers are based on responses from a sample of Montana’s population, meaning these figures involve some degree of uncertainty.
    Additionally, these numbers represent the full state, both destination communities like Bozeman and parts of Montana that remain comparatively affordable. They also include longtime homeowners who have either paid off their mortgages or have housing payments that reflect the lower purchase prices available to buyers in decades past”

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