Affordability and the Funding Gap Trends among Low-and Moderate-Income Households, 1995-2005

The period between 1995 and 2005 was a tumultuous one for low- and moderate-income (LMI) households seeking to purchase their first home. A booming housing market, stagnant incomes, and low interest rates taken together have presented both opportunities and challenges for these households. Meanwhile, regional disparities have increased markedly due to the different rates of price appreciation across housing markets. The upshot of these regional disparities is that LMI households can achieve homeownership without significant subsidies in some places, while in other places multiple layers of grants and concessionary financing, in combination with other policy tools, are the only hope for such families to ever achieve homeownership.The severe erosion of housing affordability in many markets has undermined the ability of government and nonprofit organizations to promote homeownership attainment by blunting the effectiveness of their traditional policy approaches. The response to this situation is a two-stage process. First, the nature of affordability challenges must be understood at the market level, and metropolitan-level housing markets must be accurately classified based on the difficulty that low- and moderate-income households face in becoming homeowners in each place. Second, organizations operating in each market must have access to the right tools to help their clients become owners; the approach must be accurately matched to the affordability regime in the market(s) in which they operate.This paper addresses the first issue. It develops a housing market typology based on affordability into which markets can be sorted, and to which homeownership policy approaches can be matched. The paper unfolds in several steps. It begins by deconstructing housing affordability into three elements -- house prices, incomes and mortgage costs -- and reviewing recent changes in each. It then looks at the performance of house price indexes over the past decade, explaining why they tend to show only small affordability declines despite substantial changes in house price. Following this, the paper examines affordability conditions for low- and moderate-income families in 127 housing markets using two measures: the change in affordability-index values and the gap between the maximum mortgage a household can afford and the amount required to purchase a modest home. Based on these results, we develop an affordability-based typology of market types that can be linked to policy interventions designed to promote homeownership attainment in each type of market

Prospectus, May 16, 1969

BOARD LOOKS AT CODE; Art Show Ill-Attended; Black Rap; Art Students Ask The Question Why; Review of Hamlet; Not So Nursery Rhyme; Bake Sale Goes Over Big; Ask Minerva; New Members Of SG Hit; Instructional Resource Center; The Marvelous Montoya; Teachers Unite; Parkland Players Present...; Aces And Spaces; Counselors\u27 Corner...; Dr. Smith Moves Forth; Moose Lodge Is Picketed; Liz Sharp, Klapperich Track Stars; Intramural Track Results; Parkland College Basketball Schedule; Photographic Art By Thomas Kläyhttps://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1969/1006/thumbnail.jp

Dense Gas Tracers in Perseus: Relating the N2H+, NH3, and Dust Continuum Properties of Pre- and Proto-Stellar Cores

We investigate 35 pre-stellar cores and 36 proto-stellar cores in the Perseus molecular cloud. We find a very tight correlation between the physical parameters describing the N2H+ and NH3 gas. Both the velocity centroids and the line widths of N2H+ and NH3 correlate much better than either species correlates with CO, as expected if the nitrogen-bearing species are probing primarily the dense core gas where the CO has been depleted. We also find a tight correlation in the inferred abundance ratio between N2H+ and para-NH3 across all cores, with N(p-NH3)/N(N2H+)= 22 +/- 10. We find a mild correlation between NH3 (and N2H+) column density and the (sub)millimeter dust continuum derived H2 column density for pre-stellar cores, N(p-NH3)/N(H2) ~ 10e-8, but do not find a fixed ratio for proto-stellar cores. The observations suggest that in the Perseus molecular cloud the formation and destruction mechanisms for the two nitrogen-bearing species are similar, regardless of the physical conditions in the dense core gas. While the equivalence of N2H+ and NH3 as powerful tracers of dense gas is validated, the lack of correspondence between these species and the (sub)millimeter dust continuum observations for proto-stellar cores is disconcerting and presently unexplained.Comment: ApJ accepted. 45 pages, 8 figure

Senior Recital, Colleen Trempe, trombone

The presentation of this senior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies. Colleen Trempe studies trombone with Antonio J. Garcia

The COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions: Phase I Data

We present an overview of data available for the Ophiuchus and Perseus molecular clouds from ``Phase I'' of the COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions. This survey provides a range of data complementary to the Spitzer Legacy Program ``From Molecular Cores to Planet Forming Disks.'' Phase I includes: Extinction maps derived from 2MASS near-infrared data using the NICER algorithm; extinction and temperature maps derived from IRAS 60 and 100um emission; HI maps of atomic gas; 12CO and 13CO maps of molecular gas; and submillimetre continuum images of emission from dust in dense cores. Not unexpectedly, the morphology of the regions appears quite different depending on the column-density tracer which is used, with IRAS tracing mainly warmer dust and CO being biased by chemical, excitation and optical depth effects. Histograms of column-density distribution are presented, showing that extinction as derived from 2MASS/NICER gives the closest match to a log-normal distribution as is predicted by numerical simulations. All the data presented in this paper, and links to more detailed publications on their implications are publically available at the COMPLETE website.Comment: Accepted by AJ. Full resolution version available from: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/papers/complete_phase1.pd

Prevalence and Types of Drugs Used Among Hepatitis A Patients During Outbreaks Associated with Person-to-Person Transmission, Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia, 2016–2019

Background: People who use drugs are at increased risk for hepatitis A virus infection. Since 1996, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has recommended hepatitis A vaccination for people who use drugs. Since 2016, the U.S. has experienced widespread hepatitis A outbreaks associated with person-to-person transmission. Purpose: To describe the prevalence of drug use, route of use, and drugs used among hepatitis A outbreak-associated patients. Methods: State outbreak and medical records were reviewed to describe the prevalence, type, and route of drug use among a random sample of 812 adult outbreak-associated hepatitis A patients from Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia during 2016–2019. Differences in drug-use status were analyzed by demographic and risk-factor characteristics using the χ2 test. Results: Among all patients, residents of Kentucky (55.6%), Michigan (51.1%), and West Virginia (60.1%) reported any drug use, respectively. Among patients that reported any drug use, methamphetamine was the most frequently reported drug used in Kentucky (42.3%) and West Virginia (42.1%); however, opioids were the most frequently reported drug used in Michigan (46.8%). Hepatitis A patients with documented drug use were more likely (p\u3c0.05) to be experiencing homelessness/unstable housing, have been currently or recently incarcerated, and be aged 18–39 years compared to those patients without documented drug use. Implications: Drug use was prevalent among person-to-person hepatitis A outbreak-associated patients, and more likely among younger patients and patients experiencing homelessness or incarceration. Increased hepatitis A vaccination coverage is critical to prevent similar outbreaks in the future

Junior Recital, Cody Reifsteck, alto saxophone

The presentation of this junior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies. Cody Reifsteck studies saxophone with J.C. Kuhl

An Observed Lack of Substructure in Starless Cores II: Super-Jeans Cores

We present SMA and CARMA continuum and spectral line observations of five dense cores located in the Perseus and Ophiuchus molecular clouds whose masses exceed their thermal Jeans masses. Three of these cores have previously been identified as being starless and two have been classified as being possibly protostellar. We find that one core is certainly protostellar. The other four cores, however, are starless and undetected in both C18O (2-1) and 1.3mm continuum emission. These four starless cores have flat density profiles out to at least 0.006 pc, which is typical for starless cores in general. Density profiles predicted by some collapse models, especially in the early stages of infall, are consistent with our observations. Archival data reveal that these starless cores have significant non-thermal support against collapse, although they may still be unstable.Comment: 18 pages including 5 pages of figures, accepted to Ap