Agenda - 01-20-2000 - 9h - Laserfiche WebLink

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Rental Housi~ The rental housing market, inflated by the ability of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students able to pay market rents, is beyond the means of families with incomes below 50% of the area median.. According to the 1990 Census, rental units represent 42% of the county-wide housing market and approximately 57% of those rental households spent more than 35% of their income on rent with many spending more than 50% of their income for rental housing. Each year, HUD publishes existing housing Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for metropolitan areas and non-metropolitan counties in .the country. These FMRs are based on the fortieth. percentile of standard quality rental units occupied by recent movers. Public housing units, newly constructed units, .and substandard units are excluded from the calculations. FMRs are established by unit size (number of bedrooms) and include an allowance for utilities. Experience in Orange County has shown that local rents often run an average of 15 to 20 percent .higher than those HUD published rates, which explains why such a high percentage (35%) pay more than 50% of their income .for rental housing costs. For families earning 80% or more than the County median .monthly family income of $4,022 renting amulti-bedroom apartment is relatively. easy given that they are able to locate units with 3 or more. bedrooms. Larger apartments are in relative scarcity because the rental market is oriented toward providing student rental housing .The most recent County data estimates that 24% of the County's rental properties contain three or more bedrooms. For families earning 50% or less than the median monthly income the primary concern is not finding a rental unit but rather affording one. In 1997, the upper level income limit fora very low income family of four was $2,011. For these families renting a three bedroom dwelling unit in the County, required for them to spend at least 35% of their monthly income on rent. To afford at minimum a two bedroom apartment in Chapel Hill the same set of families would have to spend at least 37% of their .monthly .income. In both instances these families would have to spend more than 30% of their gross monthly income on rent. US HUD standards define. affordable as occurring when a renter spends no more than 30% of their gross monthly income on total housing cost (rent & utilities). Affordable Housing Supply As with other types of development, Orange County's supply of affordable housing is dictated by a variety of factors, the most significant being: project profitability, availability of land and infrastructure, and government regulation. Because of land use policies that discourage urban services (sewer and water) outside of municipal areas, and stringent municipal development regulations, traditional affordable housing (apartments, single family homes) is limited to areas within or adjacent to municipalities. Within rural Orange, manufactured homes, a.k.a. mobile, homes constitute the greatest source of affordable housing. Ranging from .single section trailers and double-wides to prefabricated homes, there were an estimated 3,502 manufactured homes in rural Orange County, as of March 1990. Manufactured homes in rural areas represent 11 % of the County's overall 1990 housing supply. Development activity during the last eight years shows that approximately 1,623 new 15