It’s Good but Is It Right? An Under-the-Hood View of the Location Affordability Index
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-4-2017
Publication Title
Housing Policy Debate
Abstract
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the Location Affordability Index (LAI) as an online portal and downloadable data set. The LAI has elevated the U.S. conversation on affordability to include transportation and access to opportunities, and has been used in state and federal programming, by researchers, and by private households. However, although some researchers have noted concerns with and potential limitations of the data, none has provided practitioners and researchers with an under-the-hood view of the data, analysis of its reliability or validity, or its conceptual limitations. This article recommends methodological improvements dealing with issues of variable construction, aggregation, and modeling. A recreation of the LAI at the census-tract level suggests the LAI overestimates both costs and cost burden, but especially among renters, and especially in metropolitan areas. On the transportation side, model recreation requires partnership and resourcing to both gain access to restricted data and to develop a reliable database on transit supply and use.
Repository Citation
Ganning, Joanna, "It’s Good but Is It Right? An Under-the-Hood View of the Location Affordability Index" (2017). All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications. 0 1 2 3 1471.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/urban_facpub/1471
Original Citation
Joanna P. Ganning (2017): It’s Good but Is It Right? An Under-the-Hood View of the Location Affordability Index, Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2017.1312478
DOI
10.1080/10511482.2017.1312478
