Efforts are under way to address the high cost of housing in Belfast.
Belfast was declared Maine’s second least affordable community in 2003 in a State Housing Authority study, and the city formed an Affordable Housing Task Force a year ago to look into the matter.
Fully 53 percent of the renter households in Belfast couldn’t afford the median two-bedroom rent for 2006, the nearest full-year set of figures, according to figures from the State Housing Authority compiled by Bob King, senior research analyst.
The housing authority says renters shouldn’t spend more than 35 percent of their income on rent or they will become “rent-burdened.” The average cost of a two-bedroom apartment with utilities in Belfast was $725 per month with utilities, and the income needed to afford that price is $30,619.
The figures look worse for homebuyers.
“Fully 78 percent of Belfast households couldn’t afford the median priced home in 2006, while the corresponding figures for Waldo County was just over 59 percent and for the state, it was nearly 67 percent,” King wrote, using the 2006 figures.
