Housing and transportation affordability is a major problem for low-income households, yet studies on the issue tend to focus on the average household. Consequently, relatively little is known about the factors that affect affordability for low-income households and the neighborhoods that are affordable to them. This study addresses these issues and examines how housing and transportation affordability varies across neighborhoods with different built environments and the affordability of these neighborhoods to households from different income groups. The analysis is based on a unique data set comprised of neighborhoods within the urbanized areas of twenty-seven U.S. metropolitan areas with intra-urban rail service. Neighborhoods are further categorized into six types based on their built environments and distance from a rail station. The results suggest that transit-rich neighborhoods are more affordable than auto-oriented ones, mainly due to lower transportation costs. However, only a small share of neighborhoods and housing units are affordable to very-low income households. The results have implications to the way affordability is measured and understood as well as to efforts to alleviate affordability problems.

住房和交通负担能力是低收入家庭面临的主要问题，但对该问题的研究往往集中在普通家庭。因此，对影响低收入家庭和他们负担得起的社区的负担能力的因素知之甚少。本研究解决了这些问题，并研究了住房和交通负担能力如何在不同建筑环境的社区之间发生变化，以及这些社区对不同收入群体的家庭的负担能力。该分析基于一个独特的数据集，该数据集由拥有城内铁路服务的 27 个美国大都市区的城市化区域内的社区组成。社区根据其建成环境和距火车站的距离进一步分为六种类型。结果表明，交通便利的社区比以汽车为导向的社区更实惠，主要是因为交通成本较低。然而，只有一小部分社区和住房单元是极低收入家庭负担得起的。结果对衡量和理解负担能力的方式以及缓解负担能力问题的努力具有影响。