What is affordable housing?

Housing is "affordable" if the people living there pay no more than 30% of their income towards the rent or mortgage. So, what's affordable depends on the income level of a household.

Who is affordable housing for?

Affordable housing is typically aimed at low and moderate income households that are burdened by the high housing costs in San Diego County. Low and moderate income households earn between 50 to 120 percent of the area median income (AMI), and often pay half of their income towards housing.

What is area median income?

Each year, the federal government calculates the median income for communities across the country to use as guidelines for federal housing programs. Area median incomes are set according family size. In San Diego County, the median income for a family of four is $63,400/year.

Why do we need to build more affordable housing?

In San Diego County, the average two bedroom apartment rents for around $1,183/month. For this rent to be affordable, a household needs to earn between $22.75/hour, or $47,320/year. Similarly, a household needs to earn around $144,294 to or more than double the median income, just to afford the median home price of almost $455,000.

Clearly, many people do not earn enough to afford the median rent in San Diego. In addition to the existing need for more affordable housing, over half of new housing need in the next five years is for households earning below 100% percent of median income.

Some of the people working full-time earning 50-80% of the median income include grocery store cashiers, nurse's aides, security officers, janitors, truck drivers, sales agents, bookkeepers, fast-food employees, garment workers, data entry clerks and telemarketers.

People working full-time and earning 80-100% of the median income include legal secretaries, bank tellers, firefighters and law enforcement officers, registered nurses, teachers and city clerks.

A single person working full-time earning a wage of $9.27/hour.
A single parent with a child earning $1,840/month.
A couple with one child earning $24,800/year.

Who lives on 80% of the median income?

A single person working full time at about $15/hour.
A single parent with one child earning $2,900/month.
A couple with one child earning about $40,000/year.

Who lives on 100% of the median income?

A single person earning $18.50/hour.
A couple with no children earning $3,675/month.
A single parent with two children earning $49,600/year.
A couple with two children earning $55,100/year.

Who lives on 120% of the median income?

A single person earning working full time earning about $22/hour.
A single parent with one child earning $4,400/month.
A couple with one child earning $59,500/year.
A couple with two children earning $76,080/year.

Interactive Affordability Chart

Click Here to View an Interactive Affordability Chart for Different Occupations in San Diego County in 2005.  Go the bottom and Click on Customize Selections to choose different Occupations.