County Council Member Nancy Floreen posted information from a study on the amount and affordability of housing in the county. I asked Gaithersburg staff how we compare. Here is the result:
County: 33 percent of all residential housing units are rental units;
Staff: From our most current, published population report (ACS 5 year, 2015: verified apples to apples because Kirk includes the County for comparison, and the County is listed as 33 percent): Gaithersburg: 46 percent
County: 74 percent of renter households earn less than 100 percent of area median income;
Staff: From ACS, 5 Year, 2015, S2503: This is a trickier calculation. First, the income break nearest the AMI for a family of 4 is $110,300 is $99,999. I would say that we could factor in income rising, since Census data is kind of on the elderly side, but income isn’t really rising at all. That’s convenient for this purpose (only). The best we can do is an approximation to get a general sense of where we stand. There are 23,550 total households in Gaithersburg. 12,843 are owner-occupied (54%), and 10,707 (the 46% listed above) are renter occupied. So far so good. Census breaks the info down into groups of $5,000 to $50,000, and then lists $150,000 or more as its top tier. Since AMI is $110,300, then the tier listed as $75,000 to $99,999 along with the top tier is where we need to focus our number. Here’s how I would do the math, although you and Neil might think about this differently:
Renters at $99,000 and below: 79.1%
Renters between $100,000 – $149,999: 12.4%
Renters at $150,000 and above: 8.4%
Since AMI is $110,300, we could add 20% of 12.4% to 79.1% to capture those in the income category who edge into that middle tier. That would not make a huge difference, though. I would say between 79% and 80% of Gaithersburg renters earn less than 100% of AMI. That is consistent with what we know about Gaithersburg, generally.
County: and only 19 percent of rental units are affordable to households earning less than 50 percent of area median income.
If 50% of AMI is $55,150, then they should pay no more than $1,145 with no utilities (25%) and $1,378 if utilities are included (30%). First, the median rent in Gaithersburg is $1,542. Already not so good for low income renters. According to the ACS, there are 10,524 occupied units paying rent. Again, Census breaks don’t make this precise, but it is a close approximation. Their tiers are:
Less than $500: 408
$500-$999: 768
$1,000-$1,499: 3806
By those estimations, only 1176 (11%) are definitely affordable to those at or below 50% of AMI. You may want to bust the next category up another way, but I would say it would be fair to take 20% of the 3806 and classify that as “somewhat affordable” to those at or below 50% of AMI. That’s another 761, bringing the grand total up to about 18%.
Neil: How do we compare?
Not too far off. Although we are now on the good side of renter vs. owner, we still have more renters than the County. We have marginally more renters who are below 100% of AMI for the region. Very like the County, we have far too few units affordable to those at or below 50% of AMI. Thanks to progressive Council members, we are actively working on these issues every single day!