Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in Pennsylvania

By Erin Mierzwa, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Kathryn P. Nelson, Ph.D., Consultant, Affordable Housing Needs, with Harriet Newburger Ph.D., Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

The Community Affairs Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia undertook this study, Affordability and Availability of Rental Housing in Pennsylvania, to assess the housing needs of Pennsylvania’s lower-income renter households and to better understand how their needs vary across the state. The study looks at the incidence of housing problems among this group at both the beginning and the middle of the current decade. It also considers the extent to which there were shortages in the number of rental units that were both affordable and available to lower-income renters at these two points in time. The findings strongly suggest that conditions faced by the lowest income renters in Pennsylvania deteriorated from the beginning to the middle of the decade.

To access different sections of the study, click on the links below.

Report Sections

Complete Report (70 pages, 1.56 MB)
Complete Appendices (103 pages, 1.19 MB)
Executive Summary HTML | PDF (6 pages, 310 KB)
Chapter 1: Introduction HTML | PDF (3 pages, 287 KB)
Chapter 2: Housing Characteristics
HTML | PDF (10 pages, 425 KB)
Chapter 3: Housing Conditions in 2000
HTML | PDF (14 pages, 734 KB)
Chapter 4: Mid-decade Update (20 pages, 1.09 MB)
Chapter 5: Next Steps (6 pages, 317 KB)

Bibliography HTML | PDF (3 pages, 23 KB)
Appendix A: County-Level Characteristics (25 pages, 1.03 MB)
Appendix B: Past Research and Strategies (8 pages, 338 KB)
Appendix C: Methodology (4 pages, 381 KB)
Appendix D: County-Level Examination (23 pages, 461 KB)
Appendix E: Using ACS Data (6 pages, 306 KB)
Appendix F: Changes: 1990 to 2000 (22 pages, 453 KB)
Appendix G: Changes: 2000 to 2005-06 (15 pages, 411 KB)
Glossary HTML | PDF (4 pages, 300 KB)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the many people who helped us with this report.

Last updated: Wednesday, December 23, 2009