Afordability Index = Housing + Transportation Cost
Housing and Transportation costs, taken together, represent the true cost of living in a particular location better than looking at housing costs alone. A new, updated web-based tool unveiled recently by the Center for Neighborhood Technology to display housing and transportation costs. This Affordability Index could be useful to compare places to live if you might be moving, but also to understand a more complete picture of how affordable housing may be strategically located to maximum effect.
Additionally, it tells the story of how compact development patterns provide opportunities to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
The Center for Neighborhood Technology is:
“An Innovations Center for Urban Sustainability
Founded in 1978, the Center for Neighborhood Technology has been a leader in promoting more livable and sustainable urban communities. In fact, our work focused on sustainable development before the term became as popular as it is today. As a creative think-and-do-tank, we research, invent, and test urban strategies that use resources more efficiently and more equitably.”
source: http://www.cnt.org/about