Costs rise in the suburbs
The study, “Beltway Burden,” found that in the Washington region, increases in a household’s transportation costs start offsetting the savings from lower housing prices when families live roughly 15-17 miles or more from employment centers.
The Terwilliger Center also released the “Terwilliger Cost Calculator,” which will enable residents of metropolitan Washington to compare combined housing and transportation costs for locations in the region. “Until now, individuals only knew the cost of housing when moving into a new neighborhood, but this tool allows consumers to estimate transportation costs as well,” said Peter Haas, manager of the Geographic Research and Information Department at the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). CNT partnered with the Terwilliger Center and the Center for Housing Policy to develop the calculator and prepare the report.
Haas told New Urban News that CNT and ULI are exploring the possibility of introducing the detailed calculator in other metropolitan areas. Last April CNT and the Brookings Institution launched an interactive mapping website allowing users to look at the housing-transportation expense trade-off that an average household makes. It is at http://htaindex.cnt.org. The national calculator covers 52 metro areas and includes a map server allowing individuals to look at general trends in many important variables, but it is not as individually customized as the tool introduced in the Washington area.
Terwilliger, who chairs both Trammell Crow Residential and the Terwilliger Center, said there is a pressing need to build more housing near transit hubs and employment centers.
