Amazon’s recent pledge aims to help address the housing affordability problem in certain areas. Even huge amounts of money–like Amazon’s commitment of $2 billion–will only have a minor impact on the share of families who spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
The hot housing market is good for homeowners, but it also means the housing affordability crisis in the U.S. has intensified. The typical home in the U.S. sold for $334,000 in December. That’s 13% higher than just one year earlier, and 40% higher than the end of 2015, when the median home price was $238,000.
Expensive coastal areas like the Bay Area and Seattle exemplify how much harder it has become to afford a home over the last five years. The median home price in the San Jose metro has risen 46% to $1,098,000 since the end of 2015, driven by the abundance of high-paying tech jobs in the region. In the Seattle metro it has risen 56% to $625,000, also fueled in part by tech companies.
While high-income households living in those areas can afford to buy or rent a home, lower-income people like teachers and retail workers have a harder time paying for housing. In San Jose, 41.3% of households earning 80% of the local median income (80% = $104,692) are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. The story is similar in Seattle, where 42.7% of households earning 80% of the local median income (80% = $75,222) are rent-burdened.
“Seattle is turning into Silicon Valley, with software engineers driving up home prices. That’s especially true over the last year; Amazon and Microsoft employees are the winners of the recession, with stock prices increasing so much that many of them can afford down payments with proceeds from their stock alone,” said Seattle-area Redfin agent Scott Petrich. “Even if people who earn less money find a home they can afford, it’s almost impossible with so few homes on the market to win bidding wars against other potential buyers, who are often able to waive contingencies and waive the appraisal.”
Tech companies including Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook have introduced initiatives to help combat the affordability crisis, especially in areas where their offices are located. Most recently, Amazon launched a $2 billion fund intended to create 20,000 total housing units for households earning less than 80% of the local median income in Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C.—regions where the company already has or expects to have at least 5,000 employees in the coming years.
Amazon’s housing pledge is likely to have a small impact on the rental market
Amazon’s pledge is unlikely to make much of a dent for lower-income renters in those three metros, according to a Redfin analysis of the likely impact of Amazon’s commitment. If Amazon helps add 6,666 additional affordable rental units in the Seattle area (one-third of the company’s 20,000-unit pledge divided evenly across three metros), 41.6% of households earning 80% of the local median income would remain rent-burdened, a difference of just one percentage point.
For the sake of comparison, just 2% of households earning Seattle’s local Amazon software engineer salary ($167,000) spend more than 30% of their income on rent—and that estimate is likely high, given that it doesn’t account for Amazon employees’ stock compensation. And many people earning that income are likely choosing to spend more than 30% of their income on rent, as they could very likely find a lower-priced rental.
“Regions with a lot of tech employees have struggled to produce enough new housing to keep up with the surge of demand coming from those workers. Even Amazon’s commitment of $2 billion–a huge amount of money and nearly 5% of HUD’s annual budget–will have only a minor impact on affordability for lower-income renters,” said Redfin economist Taylor Marr. “Lack of affordability is a major problem for a lot of families because being rent-burdened can lead to bigger financial problems. When families spend so much of their income on rent, they’re unable to save money to eventually buy a home or even create an emergency savings account, which perpetuates inequality in America. And the topic is especially relevant today, as the pandemic is exacerbating income and wealth inequality as white-collar workers, including tech employees, hold onto their jobs while many people in the service industry lose theirs.”
“Even though the impact of Amazon’s pledge is small for renters, corporate commitments like this one could help prevent the housing affordability problem from getting even worse,” Marr continued. “It’s up to federal and local governments to enact bold legislation to help lower-income families all over the country afford housing on a long-term basis.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has plans to address this long-standing economic inequality by providing down-payment assistance, rental assistance—which would help people save money to eventually buy a home—and building more affordable homes.
Like in Seattle, the impact on Washington, D.C.’s rental market would be small: 40.9% of households earning 80% of D.C.’s local median income (80% = $84,527) are rent-burdened, a share that would decrease to 40.1% with 6,666 additional affordable units. Just 2.2% of local Amazon software engineers, who earn an average $169,000 per year in D.C., spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
And in Nashville, 39.7% of households earning 80% of the area’s local median income (80% = $56,210) are rent-burdened, a share that would decrease slightly to 37% with 6,666 more affordable units. The typical local Amazon software engineer in Nashville earns $211,000; 2.5% of locals earning that salary spend more than 30% of their income on rent.
Housing Affordability for Lower-Income Families Versus Amazon Software Engineers in the Nashville, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Metros, 2020
See the end of this report for a table showing affordability for lower-income families in the 50 most populous metros in the U.S.
| Metro area | Share of households earning 80% of local median income that are rent-burdened (spend more than 30% of gross income on rent) | Share of households earning 80% of local median income that are rent-burdened WITH additional units from Amazon's housing pledge | Share of for-sale two-bedroom-plus homes affordable to households earning 80% of local median income | Share of for-sale two-bedroom-plus homes affordable to households earning 80% of local median income WITH additional units from Amazon's housing pledge | Share of for-sale two-bedroom-plus homes affordable to households earning local Amazon median software engineer income | Share of households earning local Amazon median software engineer income that are rent-burdened (spend more than 30% of gross income on rent) | Median sale price (December 2020) | Median rent price (December 2020) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nashville, TN | 39.7% | 37% | 66.4% | 80.9% | 98.0% | 2.5% | $330,000 (+5.1% YoY) | $1,516 |
| Seattle, WA | 42.7% | 41.6% | 47.3% | 57.5% | 90.6% | 2% | $625,000 (+9.6% YoY) | $1,634 |
| Washington, D.C. | 40.9% | 40.1% | 70.5% | 77.3% | 94.5% | 2.2% | $450,000 (+7.4% YoY) | $1,157 |
The potential impact of Amazon’s pledge on for-sale markets is larger, but unlikely to come to fruition
While Amazon’s affordable housing pledge is likely to help add to the supply of rentals rather than add to the for-sale market, Redfin also analyzed the impact of the commitment on the for-sale markets in Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C.
In the Seattle metro, 47.3% of homes with at least two bedrooms listed for sale in 2020 were affordable to families earning 80% of the area’s median income. We analyzed listings with at least two bedrooms because they are suitable for a family. If Amazon were to help create 6,666 additional affordable homes, the share of two-bedroom-plus homes affordable to those households would increase to 57.5%. While that seems bigger than the impact on the rental market, it’s likely to be less impactful because lower-income households are more likely to be renters and Amazon’s pledge appears to be largely targeting rental apartments.
By contrast, more than 90% of two-bedroom-plus homes for sale in the Seattle metro in 2020 were affordable to the typical Amazon software engineer.
In the Washington, D.C. metro, 70.5% of two-bedroom-plus homes listed for sale in 2020 were affordable to families earning 80% of the area’s median income. The share would increase to 77.3% with 6,666 additional affordable homes. Nearly 95% of those homes in the D.C. metro are affordable to the typical Amazon software engineer.
And in Nashville, 66.4% of two-bedroom-plus homes listed for sale were affordable to families earning 80% of the local median income. That share would increase to 80.9% with 6,666 additional affordable homes for sale. Nearly all–98%–of Nashville listings are affordable to Amazon software engineers.
Although this analysis is limited to Amazon’s pledge in three metros, other major tech companies have introduced similar commitments to affordable housing across the country. Google and Facebook are investing $1 billion apiece in affordable housing in California, and Apple has pledged $2.5 billion for affordable housing in the state. Microsoft has committed $750 million to affordable housing in the Seattle area; Redfin found in a 2019 analysis that just 22% of homes in Microsoft’s hometown of Redmond, WA are affordable to its own engineers, and just 11% are affordable on the area’s local median income. Below is a breakdown of housing affordability in each of the top 50 metro areas.
Housing Affordability for Families Earning 80% of Local Median Income in the 50 Most Populous U.S. Metros, 2020
| Metro area | Share of for-sale two-bedroom-plus homes affordable to households earning 80% of the local median income | Share of households earning 80% of local median income that are rent-burdened (spend more than 30% of gross income on rent) | Median sale price (December 2020) | Median rent price (December 2020) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, GA | 76.8% | 43.1% | $284,700 | $1,739 |
| Austin, TX | 70.7% | 40.5% | $370,000 | $1,367 |
| Baltimore, MD | 78.9% | 41.9% | $305,000 | $1,212 |
| Birmingham, AL | 74.7% | 39.3% | $232,000 | $824 |
| Boston, MA | 52.1% | 43.3% | $550,000 | $2,405 |
| Buffalo, NY | 86.7% | 40.9% | $180,000 | $1,000 |
| Charlotte, NC | 72.0% | 39.6% | $297,500 | $1,339 |
| Chicago, IL | 76.2% | 40.3% | $270,000 | $1,466 |
| Cincinnati, OH | 84.4% | 39.4% | $215,000 | $969 |
| Cleveland, OH | 84.2% | 39.1% | $173,000 | $906 |
| Columbus, OH | 81.6% | 37.8% | $245,000 | $1,044 |
| Dallas, TX | 75.0% | 40.8% | $323,900 | $1,394 |
| Denver, CO | 59.0% | 39.7% | $452,000 | $1,494 |
| Detroit, MI | 80.8% | 44.1% | $155,000 | $916 |
| Hartford, CT | 86.7% | 41.9% | $255,000 | $1,091 |
| Houston, TX | 76.4% | 43.7% | $273,000 | $1,172 |
| Indianapolis, IN | 82.2% | 41.9% | $220,000 | $1,065 |
| Jacksonville, FL | 77.2% | 43.1% | $268,500 | $1,184 |
| Kansas City, MO | 84.0% | 39.3% | $244,000 | $1,038 |
| Las Vegas, NV | 63.3% | 37.2% | $320,000 | $1,436 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 13.3% | 42.1% | $730,000 | $2,037 |
| Louisville, KY | 80.2% | 35.8% | $220,000 | $875 |
| Memphis, TN | 73.7% | 42.3% | $225,000 | $850 |
| Miami, FL | 48.4% | 39.7% | $367,000 | $1,970 |
| Milwaukee, WI | 76.8% | 41.8% | $229,900 | $1,160 |
| Minneapolis, MN | 84.1% | 40.2% | $309,000 | $1,215 |
| Nashville, TN | 66.4% | 39.7% | $330,000 | $1,516 |
| New Orleans, LA | 66.4% | 40.9% | $250,000 | $1,480 |
| New York, NY | 46.1% | 39.5% | $550,000 | $2,451 |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 84.3% | 36.6% | $207,000 | $867 |
| Orlando, FL | 69.9% | 39.0% | $290,000 | $1,367 |
| Philadelphia, PA | 78.4% | 44.3% | $685,000 | $1,369 |
| Phoenix, AZ | 66.1% | 40.6% | $245,000 | $1,350 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 81.5% | 37.7% | $195,600 | $1,181 |
| Portland, OR | 55.0% | 42.0% | $450,000 | $1,466 |
| Providence, RI | 68.7% | 42.6% | $335,000 | $1,849 |
| Raleigh, NC | 80.4% | 40.3% | $315,000 | $1,645 |
| Richmond, VA | 76.1% | 46.1% | $295,000 | $1,335 |
| Riverside, CA | 45.2% | 45.0% | $450,000 | $1,673 |
| Sacramento, CA | 45.4% | 45.0% | $475,000 | $1,835 |
| Seattle, WA | 47.3% | 42.7% | $625,000 | $1,634 |
| St. Louis, MO | 70.5% | 39.3% | $207,200 | $938 |
| Salt Lake City, UT | 76.2% | 39.1% | $400,000 | $1,184 |
| San Antonio, TX | 20.5% | 37.0% | $262,500 | $1,103 |
| San Diego, CA | 23.9% | 40.6% | $660,000 | $1,993 |
| San Francisco, CA | 16.7% | 36.2% | $1,355,000 | $2,891 |
| San Jose, CA | 47.3% | 41.3% | $1,195,000 | $2,555 |
| Tampa, FL | 66.7% | 38.4% | $275,000 | $1,421 |
| Virginia Beach, VA | 82.5% | 41.8% | $265,000 | $1,157 |
| Washington, D.C. | 70.5% | 40.9% | $450,000 | $1,157 |
Methodology
For this report, we used data from the 2019 American Community Survey estimates of gross rent as percent of household income by income group to estimate the share of renter households earning 80% of a given metro area’s median household income that are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their gross median income on rent. Amazon’s $2 billion housing pledge focuses on helping families earning 30% to 80% of local median incomes in the Seattle, Nashville and Washington, D.C. metros. To analyze the potential impact of the pledge, we assumed the company would help build 6,666 affordable units, one-third of the 20,000 total units it commits to, in each metro. Then we calculated the share of households in any given metro that would be rent-burdened with the additional inventory.
To analyze the potential impact on the for-sale housing market, we calculated the share of listings in any given metro in 2020 that were affordable to households earning 80% of the local median income. The analysis is limited to homes with two bedrooms or more, which would be suitable for a family. Then we calculated the share of two-bedroom-plus listings that would be affordable with 6,666 additional affordable homes.
We included the 50 most populous U.S. metros in this analysis.
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