New Urbanism affordability
Go to this website: http://www.tndtownpaper.com/neighborhoods.htm and find an example of a planned community that seems to be a good example of “New Urbanism” (note that not all of the links are operational so you might have to search a little bit).

Determine if your New Urbanist community is affordable for a single, elementary school teacher. First, find the asking price of a one-bedroom unit in your development. If nothing is currently for sale see if you can find a recent sale in the development using Zillow.com. Next, find the annual salary level for a beginning elementary school teacher for the area your development is located in, obtained from http://www.salary.com/ (you will need to enter the zip code). Next, estimate the monthly mortgage payment for that unit using a mortgage calculator: http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/.

You will obviously have to make some assumptions. Assume a 30-year mortgage, an interest rate of 5%, and 10% downpayment (so the loan amount will be 90% of the price of the unit). You can use the defaults on property tax rate and PMI (an insurance rate). The number you’re looking for is the monthly payment. Multiply that by 12 and that should be 30% or less of the elementary school teacher’s annual salary. If it isn’t, then the unit is not affordable. Submit a 1 page write up describing the development and unit you picked and summarizing your findings. Show your calculations. Attach a screen shot of the salary.com and mortgage calculator information.

New Urbanism affordability
Go to this website: http://www.tndtownpaper.com/neighborhoods.htm and find an example of a planned community that seems to be a good example of “New Urbanism” (note that not all of the links are operational so you might have to search a little bit).

Determine if your New Urbanist community is affordable for a single, elementary school teacher. First, find the asking price of a one-bedroom unit in your development. If nothing is currently for sale see if you can find a recent sale in the development using Zillow.com. Next, find the annual salary level for a beginning elementary school teacher for the area your development is located in, obtained from http://www.salary.com/ (you will need to enter the zip code). Next, estimate the monthly mortgage payment for that unit using a mortgage calculator: http://www.mortgagecalculator.org/.

You will obviously have to make some assumptions. Assume a 30-year mortgage, an interest rate of 5%, and 10% downpayment (so the loan amount will be 90% of the price of the unit). You can use the defaults on property tax rate and PMI (an insurance rate). The number you’re looking for is the monthly payment. Multiply that by 12 and that should be 30% or less of the elementary school teacher’s annual salary. If it isn’t, then the unit is not affordable. Submit a 1 page write up describing the development and unit you picked and summarizing your findings. Show your calculations. Attach a screen shot of the salary.com and mortgage calculator information.