Key worker housing : a demand analysis of middle-income workforce housing in eastern Massachusetts

The Boston Metropolitan Area is one of the most expensive places to live in the United States. In recent years studies have speculated that middle-income workers have had to endure increased commute times as they have moved farther away from their jobs in order to live in adequate housing that is affordable. These long commutes may signal shortage and demand for more housing that the area's workforce can afford in the Boston metro area. This thesis intends to substantiate or debunk some of the above claims using Eastern Massachusetts' teacher, nurse, firefighter, and policeman "key workers" as a proxy for middle-income workforce households, and to better understand where demand may be greatest for middle-income housing. Key workers provide essential education, heath, and community safety services fundamental to the long-term vitality of our cities and towns. Key workers would therefore likely be at the forefront of any new middle-income housing policy either at the town or state level. The analysis integrates both 2000 Census micro-level individual and micro-level household data by job location to provide a more accurate picture of affordability and demand on the household level for 165 communities in Eastern Massachusetts.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Sacks, Sean D

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry O. Pollakowski and Lynn Fisher.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33178

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33178