Description: First
launched by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and
Department of Transportation (DOT) in November 2013, the Location Affordability
Index (LAI) provides ubiquitous, standardized household housing and
transportation cost estimates for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Because
what is affordable is different for everyone, users can choose among eight household
profiles—which vary by household income, size, and number of commuters—and see
the impact of the built environment on affordability in a given location while
holding household demographics constant.
Version
3 updates the constituent data sets with 2012-2016 American Community Survey
data and makes several methodological tweaks, most notably moving to modeling
at the Census tract level rather at the block group. As with Version 2, the
inputs to the simultaneous equation model (SEM) include six endogenous variables—housing
costs, car ownership, and transit usage for both owners and renters—and 18
exogenous variables, with vehicle miles traveled still modeled separately due
to data limitations.To learn more about the Location Affordability Index (v.3) visit: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/location-affordability-index/.Date of Coverage: 2012-2016 LAI Version 3 Data and MethodologyLAI Version 3 Technical Documentation