What is AFFORDABLE housing?

One of the hot buttons around Park City for years is the lack of affordable housing. A development near town called Park City Heights has been chided for its delays in offering affordable housing. Today we read that 300 of Silver Creek Village’s planned 330 affordable housing units may be the first to be developed. So, people are paying attention to the topic and it seems important.

However, what we have always wondered is what exactly is affordable? Is a $500,000 house affordable? Is a $1,500 a month apartment affordable?

It seems one of the typical criteria of affordable housing is that no more than 30% of a person’s/family’s income should be spent on rent/mortgage and utilities.

So, let’s start with what seems to be the going rate for fast food jobs in Park City. That’s about $14 an hour (yes it can be lower). $14 times 40 hours a week times 50 weeks a year equals $28,000 a year or $2,300 per month. Thirty percent of that is about $700 per month (rent plus utilities). So, you are looking for an apartment or a house/condo priced at about $175,000 (if you put 20% down). Neither of those are going to happen around Park City.

Let’s say two people get together (partners, married, or just living together), with two fast food jobs, all of sudden make an apartment look like an affordable option. If we recall, the “affordable” studios as part of the Whole Foods project were estimated to cost about $1500 a month.