Survey: Stamford-Norwalk has stiffest rents in nation

December 13, 2006; As originally appeared in The Advocate by Doug Dalena, Staff Writer

The Stamford-Norwalk rental market is the least affordable in the country, according to an annual nationwide survey by a housing advocacy group.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition's survey found renters must earn $30.62 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the area without spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

The hourly wage needed for such an apartment, which costs an average of $1,592 per month, rose $1.74, or 5.7 percent, from last year.

That makes renting in Stamford and Norwalk tougher than in San Francisco, last year's most expensive area, as well as Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C., according to the report. Stamford ranked second in last year's survey.

"That doesn't surprise me at all based on what we know about the market realities and of market pressures around here," said Joan Carty, executive director of the Fairfield-based Housing Development Fund of Fairfield County.

Carty, whose organization helps moderate-income families buy homes and helps developers build low-cost housing, said the Stamford-Norwalk area has been one of the three most expensive housing markets in the nation for more than a decade.

"Affordable housing is key to having a vibrant and growing economy," said Jeffrey Freiser of the Connecticut Housing Coalition, which issued the report with a national group. "Businesses won't choose to locate or expand in Stamford if their employees can't afford to live there."

Including rental housing in the affordable housing mix is crucial, Freiser said, because not everyone can meet strict income and credit requirements.

More than half of area households - 54 percent - cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rent, according to an estimate in the report based on U.S. Census data.

Fair market rents are determined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development using the cost of renting apartments considered safe and adequate but not luxurious. The HUD standard for affordability is spending no more than 30 percent of household income on housing.

Families earning less than 30 percent of the area median income - $34,890 for a family of four - have the hardest time finding affordable rental housing, the report said. Those families can afford monthly rent of only $872, nearly half the $1,592 considered fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Stamford-Norwalk region.

Fair market rents for other apartments were $1,046 for a studio, $1,274 for a one-bedroom, $2,074 for a three-bedroom and $2,506 for a four-bedroom.

The fair market rent in the Stamford-Norwalk area exceeded the next highest in Connecticut - the New Haven-Meriden region - and the statewide average by more than $500.

Wages were higher in Stamford - $20.26 for the average renter, compared with $15.09 statewide - but fell $10 per hour short of the amount needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to the report. Those wages would require a Stamford-Norwalk worker to put in 60 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment, compared with 54 hours statewide.

"If you only earn minimum wage in Stamford, you would have to work 165 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment," Freiser said. "When you do the arithmetic, that comes out to 231Ú2 hours a day, seven days a week. That would relieve the need to have housing at all. You could just live at your job."

Stamford has tried to address its affordable housing shortage - identified by business leaders and residents as one of the area's most serious problems - by requiring developers to reserve at least 10 percent of all homes they build for renters or buyers who earn less than half the area median income.

The requirement, enacted in 2003, has produced a handful of completed units, but several hundred could be built in the next three years if all approved and proposed housing projects are built. Most of the units have been for affordable home ownership, but several recent proposals have included rental housing.

The Jonathan Rose Co., which is developing 220 units of housing in W&M Properties' proposed Metro Center II next to the Stamford train station, pledged to set aside 48 apartments - 23 percent - for low- and moderate-income residents, including some for people earning less than $11 per hour.

The Glenview House development at Glenbrook Road and East Main Street will include 14 apartments reserved for renters who earn less than 50 percent of the area median income.

Norwalk is considering a similar requirement, but some city leaders worry that the rule, called inclusionary zoning, discourages housing development by increasing developers' costs.

"The trends are challenging," Carty said. "I think the silver lining is the fact that the gap in housing affordability is back on the radar screen, both locally and statewide."

- Staff Writer Julie Fishman-Lapin contributed to this story.