First
launched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and
Department of Transportation (DOT) in November 2013, the Location Affordability
Index (LAI) provides ubiquitous, standardized household housing and
transportation cost estimates at the Census block-group level for the majority
of the populated area of the United States. Because what is affordable is
different for everyone, users can choose among eight household profiles—which
vary by household income, size, and number of commuters—and see the impact of
the built environment on affordability in a given neighborhood location while
holding household demographics constant.
In
Version 1, these estimates were originally generated with data from several
federal sources and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) data from Illinois EPA using
separate OLS regression models for household housing costs, VMT, car ownership,
and transit usage. Version 2, in addition to updating all the constituent data
sources, represents
a significant a methodological and technical advance from Version 1, modelling
auto ownership, housing costs, and transit usage for both homeowners and
renters are concurrently using simultaneous equation modeling (SEM) to capture
the interrelationship of these factors. The inputs to the SEM include these six
endogenous variables and 18 exogenous variables, with VMT still modeled
separately due to data limitations.
To learn more about the Location Affordability Index (v.2.0) visit: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/location-affordability-index/.
Data Dictionary: DD_Location Affordability Indev v.2.0
Date of Coverage: 2008-2012
The Location Affordability Index helps to better understand the combined cost of housing and transportation.
Allmaps