Most D.C.-area residents worry about paying their rent or mortgage, according to a recent Gallup survey.
About 52% of residents in the greater metropolitan area said they are “very” or “somewhat” worried about their housing payments — an increase of 21 percentage points since before the pandemic.
Gallup and the nonprofit Greater Washington Community Foundation reported the findings on Tuesday. The results emerge from nearly 3,000 residents in suburban Maryland, Virginia and the District who were surveyed last summer.
A similar survey in January 2020, two months before stay-at-home orders were issued, found that 31% of residents worried about making rent or paying their mortgage.
“While many residents struggle with meeting even their most basic needs, including food and housing, their challenges are compounded by additional barriers to employment — such as access to childcare — or barriers to financial goals, such as credit scores or financial history,” Gallup said.
D.C.-area lawmakers, officials and community activists have long advocated for affordable housing to little effect.
As more people move to Northern Virginia, officials in Arlington and Alexandria last year authorized denser residential developments in areas reserved for single-family homes to increase housing stock. Still, an estimate from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors and George Mason University predicts prices will continue rising this year, peaking in June at a median of $935,930 for a single-family home.
In Montgomery County, officials have invested in public housing for decades and require developers to set aside roughly 15% of units in new projects for households earning less than two-thirds of the area’s median income for a family of four — a little over $150,000 a year. However, broad opposition has stalled affordable housing projects for low-income and homeless residents.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has announced a goal of creating 12,000 new affordable housing units by next year. But last month, she proposed cutting funds for the Housing Production Trust Fund, one of her key initiatives, to help offset an estimated $700 million budget deficit in fiscal year 2025.
Just 11% of D.C. residents responding to the Gallup poll last summer were happy with the availability of affordable housing, compared with 13% of those in the region.
That was slightly higher than the 10% of residents in Fairfax County who said the same — and just a bit lower than the 15% of adults in Loudoun County, Arlington and Alexandria who were content with affordable housing options.
Meanwhile, 14% of Prince George’s County residents and 15% of Montgomery County residents said they were satisfied with their affordable housing options.
Gallup also found that D.C. residents, Black adults and Hispanic adults were the unhappiest among area residents about a range of key economic indicators.
Most D.C. residents reported satisfaction with transportation, nightlife, arts and cultural opportunities. But they were the unhappiest of any residents in the region with their access to basic needs and services.
Just 38% of D.C. adults expressed satisfaction with their public schools, and 39% were happy with the nation’s capital “as a place to raise children.”
Regionally, nearly 1 in 5 adults agreed that “there have been times in the past year” they could not afford food and medicine. In the District, the share of people unable to afford food was 30%, the highest in the area.
Reports about being unable to afford food, medicine and shelter were also high in Prince George’s County.
On the other hand, residents of Northern Virginia reported the fewest struggles in meeting basic needs, followed by adults living in Montgomery County.
“Black and Hispanic residents are more likely than other racial subgroups to report struggling to afford basic needs,” Gallup noted.
Fewer than 15% of White and Asian residents reported lacking money for food, medicine and shelter. (Among the jurisdictions surveyed, the District and Prince George’s County have the highest concentrations of Black and Hispanic residents, with White and Asian residents being more common elsewhere.)
Gallup mailed 27,000 surveys in English and Spanish to adults living in the region between May 5 and June 6 last year. A total of 2,832 residents completed them, a 10% response rate. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.