Measuring the Housing Affordability of Urban Residents——Based on Residual Income

The purpose of this paper is to measure the housing affordability of different households in Wuhan from 2003 to 2008,which the costs of the non-housing necessities,including food,clothing,household facilities,articles and services,and so on,are deduced by the Extended Linear Expenditure system(ELES).The empirical study shows that the lower middle income households and below have housing affordability problems for a standardized new home,and the lower income is associated with weaker housing affordability.The outcomes of residual measures are more persuasive than the ratio measures,which shows the housing affordability problems of upper middle income households and below are more prominent,and scales up the housing affordability of households.The Residual Income can be used to quantitatively measure various types of family housing affordability and the absolute size of the gaps,help to define the target households and standards of housing subsidies,determine the sales and leasing guide price of public housing,and promote the housing security policy.