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Health Care Workers Can’t Afford Homes in Most Markets
Health care workers are priced out of buying a home in the majority of metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to the latest report from the Center for Housing Policy's “Paycheck to Paycheck” research on how wages for various workers who are needed in the community compare to prevailing housing costs.
The study found that licensed practical nurses don’t quality to purchase the median-priced home in 187 of the 202 metro areas that were studied. Registered nurses were out of luck in 115 of the local markets and physical therapists in 104. Nursing aides and home health aides were shut out of the homeownership market entirely.
“With Americans living longer and the baby boom generation aging, our communities will need more health care workers to meet the growing demand,” said Kent Colton, chairman of the center and a senior scholar at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. “However, if these workers cannot afford to become home owners, as this study shows, it will likely become more difficult to attract a sufficient workforce.”
“It is also clear from this study that housing affordability concerns stretch beyond the health care field to a spectrum of other occupations,” Colton added.
Overall, an annual income of $84,957 was needed to qualify for the nation’s median-priced home of $248,000 in the third quarter of last year, the center’s study found. For that same period registered nurses earned a median salary of $58,640, licensed practical nurses $37,127, nursing aides $24,745, physical therapists $62,417 and home health aides $20,414.
The study also pointed to affordability problems among health care workers in the rental housing market. Nursing aides were unable to afford renting a typical one-bedroom home in 80 of the metro areas and a two-bedroom home in 147 of the markets that were surveyed. For home health aides, those numbers were 144 and 201, respectively.
In its latest report, the center also analyzed housing affordability for elementary school teachers, police officers, retail salespersons and janitors.
The study found that police officers would not quality to purchase the median-priced home in 161 of the 202 metro areas, followed by elementary school teachers, who were priced out of 157 markets. Retail salespersons and janitors didn’t qualify anywhere.
The Center for Housing Policy is the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference.
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