UA Study Ties Housing Affordability to Transportation

The report cites the cost of commuting to work and shopping can negate the advantage of less expensive housing located on the edges of metropolitan areas like Tucson.

By University Communications June 1, 2009

The Roy P. Drachman Institute in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at The University of Arizona has released a new report. "Housing + Transportation Affordability in Tucson Metropolitan Area, Pima County, and Pinal County" was developed by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, or CNT, in Chicago.

This research provides information on the combined housing and transportation costs in the Tucson Metro Area, Pima and Pinal Counties, and demonstrates that these two household expenses are closely linked. While housing away from the urban core tends to be newer, larger and often less costly, transportation needs make car ownership a necessity and typically increases travel-related expenses.

In contrast, the report shows how both housing and transportation costs are lower in compact neighborhoods within the urban core. Housing in these neighborhoods is often smaller and older, but residents can more easily get to jobs, shopping and amenities by transit and walking.

The report also illustrates how, as Metropolitan Tucson, and Pima and Pinal counties continue to grow, they have the opportunity to develop in such a way that residents can reduce the environmental impacts of travel while also reducing household transportation costs.

Scott Bernstein, in partnership with the Brookings Institution, developed the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index and is responsible for the Tucson/Pima/Pinal report as well as this kind of work in 55 metropolitan areas nationwide. Bernstein is founder and president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology.

Bernstein will be in Tucson Thursday and Friday, June 4 and 5. His visit will include appearing on a panel at a meeting of the Pinal Partnership in Florence, Ariz. The meeting is on Friday morning, June 5, from 8 to 9 a.m. at The Windmill Restaurant, 1140 W. Butte Avenue in Florence. Bernstein has been asked to briefly summarize the results of the study as it applies to Pinal County.

The meeting in Florence was arranged by Shannon Scutari, the Governor's Policy Director for Growth and Infrastructure under both Janet Napolitano and Jan Brewer.

In April, CNT was recognized as one of only eight organizations around the world to receive the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

The report for Tucson, Pima and Pinal Counties is available on the Drachman Institute Web site and the interactive maps are available at the CNT Web site.

The UA Drachman Institute focuses its research and outreach activities based on the proposition that housing is the building block of neighborhoods and that neighborhoods are the building blocks of communities.