182 – Area-Based Statistics
Housing Affordability for Low-Income Households in New Jersey, Maryland, and West Virginia: A Comparative Analysis
Claudia Hauck
Rutgers University
George Obsekov
American College of Radiology
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze affordability of housing among owner- and renter occupied units in New Jersey, Maryland and West Virginia so as establish which state is most affordable for low-income households. This was done through analyses of variables from the 2009 Census (Public Use Microdata Set). Descriptive statistics show significant differences in income levels and availability of affordable housing among the three states. Six predictive models of the odds of affordability - two models for each state- were constructed, and their differences were assessed. To identify smaller subsets of important variables, we employed several methods: the LASSO method, elastic net and stepwise regressions.
