Smart Growth

Housing and Transportation Affordability

The Bay Area is known for its high housing costs, but how does adding the cost of daily transportation needs affect household budgets based on where they choose to live? These household transportation costs can include daily commuting costs such as transit fares or gas, as well as the fixed costs of owning one or more automobiles.

Many households in search of less expensive housing seek out locations that require more driving, and more money spent on transportation. Others looking to trim their transportation expenses choose to move closer to the city, where they can realize savings by reducing the number of cars they need to own and how far they need to drive them to meet their daily needs.

To better understand housing and transportation affordability tradeoffs Bay Area households are making, MTC commissioned the Center for Neighborhood Technology to analyze regional variations housing and transportation affordability based on location. The resulting report, Bay Area Housing and Transportation Affordability: A Closer Look (PDF), illustrates how location affects the affordability of both housing and transportation in the region, and highlights the limited locational choices lower-income households in particular face in finding affordable neighborhoods.