Housing Remains a Stark Need in Connecticut, Data Shows

The headline on the flyer “State of Home Affordability in Connecticut” pointed out that “In Connecticut, 1 in 6 households spend more than half of their income on housing,” adding that “lower income households are especially likely to have unaffordable housing costs, requiring more than 30% of their income.”

Produced by Habitat for Humanity and accompanying a fundraising mailing for the organization, also indicated that “The underproduction of housing is driving up unaffordability and impeding efforts to close racial and ethnic gaps in homeownership.”

Under the heading “Increasingly, the typical renter can’t afford to buy a home in Connecticut” the one-page flyer is filled with stand-out charts and graphs, including highlighting that $110,727 per year is the income needed to purchase a median-priced home in Connecticut and the median renter income is $46,000 per year.

Charting homeownership rates by race/ethnicity, the data highlights the following stats:  75% for white individuals, 63% for Asian, 51% for Native American, 47% for Black, 41% for Hispanic individuals. 

In focusing on the housing shortage data, the flyer notes that there is a 33,841 shortage of homes relative to demand, and that the growth in housing shortage since 2014 has reached 15,847.

Habitat for Humanity has Connecticut offices in Cromwell, Danbury, Hartford, Lakeville, New Haven, New London, and Stratford. Across the nation, Habitat for Humanity “brings people together to build homes, communities and hope,” according to its mission statement. 

The organization is described as “a movement of people in your local area and around the world, working together to build more prosperous and vibrant communities by making sure everyone has a decent, safe, affordable place to call home.”