Housing Troubles Worsen For The Poor

The numbers of low-income families devoting high levels of income to housing costs are soaring according to a new study.

The housing boom may have ended, but even at its peak, it left legions of low-income, working families worse off in its wake.

According to a new study from the Center for Housing Policy (CHP), an affiliation of the National Housing Conference (NHC), the percentage of low income households forced to spend more than half their earnings for housing needs exploded as housing prices boomed.

This report does not come as a shock. In NY many of the normally poorer area were gentrified as the middle class sought out less expensive areas in which to live. Many times gentrifying areas inhabited by the poor who were then not able to afford their own areas.

The median price of a single family house soared by about 86 percent from 1997 to 2005, according to statistics from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Housing prices hit their peak in 2005, when they jumped almost 13 percent for the year.

"Home prices went up far faster than any wage growth," said Lipman, "especially among low income families, whose real wages have either risen anemically or actually fallen."

As usual it is the poor who will suffer the most as the rich get an ever bigger slice of the pie and the rest of us are left to fight over the scraps.