Travel, tourism workers face housing challenges, report says

Wages have not kept pace with the rising costs of homeownership or renting for many U.S. workers in the travel and tourism industries, according to a recent report by the Center for Housing Policy (CHP), Paycheck to Paycheck 2013.

“One of the most overlooked aspects of this recovery is that for many workers, incomes are not rebounding in step with local housing markets,” explained co-author and CHP Senior Research Associate Maya Brennan, in a release. “Even in a strong sector like travel and tourism, wages have not kept pace with the rising costs of renting or homeownership.”

The report explores trends in housing affordability for mid-career workers in five common jobs in the travel and tourism industry: housekeepers, wait staff, auto mechanics, front desk managers and flight attendants. Four out of five travel workers studied cannot afford to purchase a median-priced home. Only flight attendants earn enough to afford the mortgage on a median-priced home, while housekeepers and wait staff cannot afford the fair market rent on either a one or two-bedroom apartment in any of the 207 metro areas studied.

CHP Director and National Housing Conference Vice President for Research Lisa Sturtevant noted that rising prices and rents have meant that many working individuals and families struggle to find affordable housing in their communities.

“The continued improvement in housing markets across the country is good news for current homeowners who saw the values of their homes plummet during the downturn,” said Sturtevant. “However, the turnaround in housing prices—driven by investors in many markets—along with the still-tight mortgage market, has kept it very difficult for moderate-income families to afford to a buy a home. The demand for rental housing has increased substantially in some markets, putting upward pressure on rents. And as prices and rents are rising, wages have been steady at best, and many working families remain priced out of many markets.”

“There is a fundamental tension between a housing recovery and housing affordability. The solutions are higher wages or greater access to affordable housing,” she added.

According to the report, many metro areas were more affordable for travel workers looking to buy a home in 2013 than in 2012. But in markets with rebounding home prices, affordability declined. Travel workers faced the toughest housing affordability challenges in major vacation destinations, such as Suffolk-Nassau, New York, Barnstable, Mass., and Ocean City, N.J.

A copy of the report as well as data for more than 200 U.S. metro areas is available here.