Homeowners in some of the area’s poorest neighborhoods are spending nearly half of their income on housing, a percentage far higher than the 30 percent experts say should be spent on housing costs. The potentially dangerous levels of spending are occurring largely in Prince George’s County, where mortgaged homeowners in cities near the Capital Beltway give up between 35 percent and 45 percent of their incomes for housing-related bills, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
| Communities with biggest housing burden | ||
| Percentage of income | Median | |
| toward housing | household income | |
| Brentwood | 44% | $53,010 |
| Langley Park | 38% | $49,521 |
| Landover Hills | 38% | $64,297 |
| Woodlawn | 37% | $59,681 |
| Forestville | 35% | $60,962 |
| Source: American Community Survey 2005-2009 | ||
Brentwood homeowners have the biggest housing burden, devoting 44 percent of their incomes to housing. With a median household income of roughly $53,000, Brentwood is also one of the lowest-earning cities in the area.
In Langley Park, homeowners pay 38 percent of their income toward housing and bring in less than $50,000 per household. Further south, Landover Hills and Woodlawn households put 38 percent and 37 percent of their incomes toward housing. Median household incomes there are between $60,000 and $65,000.
Low-income families tend to pay higher interest rates on their mortgages, experts said. They also tend to pay more for utilities because their houses are less insulated and the appliances are older. Home insurance is also more expensive as the neighborhoods tend to be less safe.
“It’s a sweeping phenomenon in our country that acts as a powerful barrier for low-income households to convert their wages to economic mobility,” said Matt Fellowes, a consumer finance expert and CEO of HelloWallet in D.C.
Daraius Irani, director of Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute, said Prince George’s County’s high foreclosure rates during the recession helped create conditions where many people are burdened by housing costs.
“A lot of homes were over-mortgaged in Prince George’s County,” he said. “So you have these factors of people having reduced incomes due to lower employment opportunities.”
Of the communities where the average household has a housing burden, 14 are in Prince George’s County. The other two are Manassas Park, also a lower-income area, and Round Hill in Loudoun County, where the foreclosure crisis also played a factor.
Meanwhile, the communities that earn the most also pay proportionally the least for housing. Montgomery County’s Glen Echo, Brookeville, Chevy Chase and Barnesville all devoted less than 20 percent of their household income toward housing.
