Housing Affordability since 1990 — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Housing Affordability since 1990

Name: Peter Hegland
Major: Economics
Hometown: Kenosha
Faculty Sponsor: Julio Rivera
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project

Abstract

This project examined the average cost of mortgages for first-time home buyers in the United States over the past 25 years to observe any significant changes over that time. The underlying question asked in this analysis was, “What is the threshold that people are willing to pay for a house, and has that threshold changed over the last 3 decades?”

Null and alternative hypotheses were formed to examine the question. The null hypothesis was, “There is no difference in the affordability of houses based on metropolitan status and year between 1990 and 2015.” The alternative hypothesis was, “There is a difference in the affordability of houses based on metropolitan status and year between 1990 and 2015.”

A dataset was extracted from IPUMS to show information on housing, mortgage, and income levels since 1990, and the hypotheses were tested using a factorial ANOVA. Two new variables were created for this test:

· “Total Mortgage Amount” added the values of all monthly mortgage amount variables and combined them into one.

· This variable was then multiplied by 12, divided by total household income, and multiplied by 100 to obtain a percentage value for housing affordability.

These variables allowed comparisons of housing affordability to be made across the specified 25-year scope of the analysis.

Poster file