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CNT Study Highlights Economic Benefits of Transit Access

The Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation Affordability Index. Click through to explore.

Think living in Manhattan is expensive? Try living in the suburbs.

While this may fly in the face of conventional wisdom, a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology finds that Manhattan residents spend a lower percentage of their income on housing and transportation than their counterparts in car-dependent suburbs like Westchester County, NY, Litchfield County, CT, or Warren County, NJ.

CNT’s recently-released Housing + Transportation Affordability Index found that a typical household in Manhattan spends 35.71% of its income on housing and transportation costs, while typical households in Westchester, Litchfield, and Warren Counties spend 58.98%, 48.65%, and 59.57%, respectively.

These tri-state neighborhoods match the national trend that emerged in the H+T study: while housing and transportation costs are increasing across the nation, neighborhoods that are “location efficient” – those with good access to transit, jobs and amenities – have lower transportation costs. The index finds, for a typical family living in a location efficient neighborhood in 2000, that transportation costs (a combination of car maintenance, car ownership, and public transportation spending) increased by $1,400 per year. A similar family living in a car-dependent neighborhood saw their transportation costs increase by $3,900 per year. In short, the index finds that location efficient neighborhoods correlate with reduced transportation and housing costs.

Luckily for residents in Connecticut, New Jersey, and downstate New York, some local municipalities are beginning to take notice of the link between housing and transportation. Transit-oriented development projects are becoming more and more prevalent throughout the region, and are creating the potential for more affordable living.

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[…] Living in Manhattan Starts to Look More Affordable When You Factor in Transpo Costs (MTR) […]

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[…] Living in Manhattan Starts to Look More Affordable When You Factor in Transpo Costs (MTR) […]

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[…] Rockefeller Foundation Backs City’s Push for Bus Rapid Transit Chicago Tribune March 6, 2012 CNT Study Highlights Economic Benefits of Transit Access Mobilizing the Region Blog March 6, 2012 Wider View of Affordability Needed Auckland Transport Blog […]

Angelyn Broder
10 years ago

Thanks for expressing valuable information!!! I found this information and I absolutrly like it. Please post much more articles defintely looking forward to seeing your postings in the furture.

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[…] to jobs and is accessible to their place of residence. As the Center for Neighborhood Technology has shown, households in location-efficient communities – places with good access to transit, jobs and […]

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[…] bolsters findings from the Center for Neighborhood Technology which has shown the importance in connecting housing and transportation costs to better understand neighborhood affordability. CNT’s H+T […]

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[…] $100 million additional investment to create and preserve 3,000 units of affordable housing in multi-family developments (but no mention as to whether this housing will be transit-accessible — to be truly affordable, transportation will need to be considered) […]

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