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Report: Miami Is Unaffordable Because People Aren't Making Enough Money

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According to a report released this week from the Center for Housing Policy and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, Miami is the least affordable metropolitan area for middle class Americans.

And it's not because Miami is more expensive-- it's because the middle class here isn't making enough money compared to other big cities.

This week's study highlighted the cost of housing and transportation in major metropolitan areas-- but in relation to household incomes.

The South Florida Business Journal took a look at the study and found that while nationally people are spending about 48 percent of their household incomes on housing and transportation-- in Miami it's 72 percent.

That's because people with median incomes in Miami are making very little money in relation to the costs of living here, which sets us apart from other expensive cities such as New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

In New York City people pay significantly less for transportation, while wages are much higher in San Francisco, Boston and Washington D.C.

The Journal reports,

Nationally, 48 percent of median household income is spent on housing and transportation costs. For moderate-income families – those earning from 50 percent to 100 percent of the median income – 59 percent of their income is spent on housing and transportation.It’s much worse in the Miami metro area. People of moderate income, making $25,444 to $50,888 per year, spend 72 percent of their income on housing and transportation. “The area’s very high cost burdens are not, however, the result of having the highest absolute costs,” the study said of Miami. “In fact, the Miami area’s combined housing and transportation costs are more or less average among the nation’s largest metro areas, but these expenses are so out of sync with local incomes – among the lowest of all metro areas – that they consume a very large portion of the household budget.”

According to the study, Washington, D.C. is considered the most affordable metro area in the U.S.

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