SPUR (the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association) unveiled a report called Losing Ground-– What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality. While focused on the Bay Area, the report’s findings are helpful in understanding the challenges faced by middle income households in finding housing they can afford and in offering policy ideas for elected officials in response. Middle income households are defined as those earning between 80-120% of Area Median Income. According to the report, the median income for an average Bay Area family was roughly $108,000 in 2020.

The report suggests four areas of policy action:

1. Building more housing of all types at all price points
2. Enacting policies that respond to middle income households, but also those who fall in the doughnut—between 60-80% or area median income, a group not always targeted for affordable housing resources
3. Increasing policy tools that focus on homeownership, particularly for Black and Latinx households
4. Learning from other places that have done a good job providing housing for this population, particularly those with strong social housing models in place, like Vienna