Renters finding it a bit harder to live in St. Charles

A new study shows it's getting a little tougher for a non-affluent person to live in St. Charles.

The city this week released its Housing Market Affordability study, an annual measure of whether or not residents can actually afford to live there. Using a state formula, city staff determined households earning 80 percent of the area median income can, at best, own a $188,000 home. However, the median sales price of homes in St. Charles was $238,000 as of 2009. Meanwhile, the median household income in the city is $81,557, but nearly 35 percent of households earn less than that.

Armed with that information, the city counted up all the owner-occupied units (typically, single-family homes) and all the rental units within its borders. It then determined that only about 1,200 homes and 1,100 rental units in the city are considered affordable for the 35 percent of households earning $81,557 a year or less. That's roughly 16.6 of the entire housing stock in the city.

For the state's purposes, that's more than enough affordable housing for any community. But city officials aren't quite satisfied with one trend they noted in the study.

Since 2004, the number of affordable rental units in St. Charles dropped by nearly 200. And most of the remaining rental units are only affordable to people who earn significantly less than $81,557 per year.

The city's Housing Commission recently reviewed the study. It determined the city should develop programs to rehabilitate and assist in maintaining the stock of affordable rental units in the city to halt the trend.