Rural Housing in the Budget

A bit out of date given the recent events in Washington DC, but here's a look at the proposed budgets for USDA Rural Housing. 

The most significant change seems to be the elimination of housing preservation programs, although it is expected that an increase in the budget for Section 515 loans would also cover preservation efforts.  That seems in line with the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to consolidate similar or redundant programs to make them more effective and easier to manage.

The administration's budget also eliminates funding for Section 523, which is the self-help program in which families invest sweat equity by helping build their homes.

Advocates and professionals in rural housing are unhappy with the budget, viewing it as one of the "worst requests ever" for rural housing.

Transportation & Jobs

Although this blogs focuses mostly on housing issues, one cannot ignore the fact that transportation is very closely related to housing, to the extent that a Housing + Transportation Index has been created to calculate the total cost of living in a place.

Transportation is also very important to employment.  Not everyone can drive; maybe it's because of poor eyesight, poor night vision, age, possibility of seizures, or even as a personal choice.  This can have a big impact on the jobs available to people.  Lack of employment eventually leads to lack of housing.

A good article at Huffington Post about the transportation situation in Milwaukee County.

Peggy Schulz was fed up. In March, after being unemployed for nearly two years, she performed an experiment: She went to a job-search website, limited the search to the Milwaukee area and typed in a simple term: "bus line."

The results displayed what had long been plaguing her. Job posting after job posting featured similar caveats: "this is not on a bus line," "need reliable transportation not on bus line," "positions are NOT on a bus line," "our client that is not located on a bus line is interested in having you work ..."

Over time, many new employment centers have been created in the suburbs, but with a lack of public transportation to those employment centers.  This means that people who don't want to drive, or more likely, cannot drive, do not have access to an increasing number of jobs, especially as bus lines shrink, as rail is blocked.

It's not just the employees who suffer, but also the employers. 

Across Milwaukee County, workers want jobs, and businesses want workers. Eric Isbister is the chief executive of GenMet, a metal fabricator located one block north of Milwaukee county. He needs new employees -- the expansion of his business depends on it -- but he can't get them.

The nearest bus stop is more than two miles from his factory. He advertises in newspapers, and regularly interviews prospective employees, but he continually runs up against the same problem. Often, he said, he'll see an interviewee's friends or family waiting in a car outside, ready to give the person a ride home. When he sees that, he knows he won't be able to hire the worker.

Isbister said he'd hire a dozen new employees on the spot, if only he could.

Realtors Survey on Smart Growth

The National Association of Realtors has released a press release on their survey regarding home buyer preferences.

Walkable communities are defined as those where shops, restaurants, and local businesses are within walking distance from homes. According to the survey, when considering a home purchase, 77 percent of respondents said they would look for neighborhoods with abundant sidewalks and other pedestrian-friendly features, and 50 percent would like to see improvements to existing public transportation rather than initiatives to build new roads and developments.

The survey also revealed that while space is important to home buyers, many are willing to sacrifice square footage for less driving. Eighty percent of those surveyed would prefer to live in a single-family, detached home as long as it didn't require a longer commute, but nearly three out of five of those surveyed -- 59 percent -- would choose a smaller home if it meant a commute time of 20 minutes or less.

The survey also found that community characteristics are very important to most people. When considering a home purchase, 88 percent of respondents placed more value on the quality of the neighborhood than the size of the home, and 77 percent of those surveyed want communities with high-quality schools.

While the study shows that people do prefer detached single-family homes on larger lots, that preference can be tempered by other factors such as community amenities, although age and party can have an impact.

• Younger people who are unmarried tend to prefer the convenience of smart growth, walkable communities. Subdivision-type communities appeal more to middle-aged, married couples. 
• Political views are predictive of what type of communities Americans prefer. Democrats and liberals tend to prefer smart growth-type communities, while Republicans and conservatives are more likely to favor sprawl-type communities.

The problem with having larger detached single-family homes on larger lots is that by their nature, everything is forced to be further away.  Sure, you can try to design clusters around community amenities, but it's much more difficult.  Ideally, you'd have a mix of home designs and sizes so that any given community or neighborhood will have multiple options, and that might allow you to have more of a walkable neighborhood than you might otherwise have.

Evidence of "Progress"

#10 is where we are at after decades of "progress".

Update:  I meant Slide #10, rather than implying Milwaukee was #10.  Should've been clearer.