Part 1 Overview

Part 1 includes the following chapters:

1 Why affordability matters

Chapter 1 explains the basics of housing affordability, makes the case for addressing high housing costs to make our communities more successful, and demonstrates the basic mechanisms available for making housing more affordable across Virginia.

2 Public opinion of housing

Chapter 2 describes results from numerous public opinion polls in recent years that have asked questions about housing affordability and opportunity. These findings help make the case for increased and sustained actions to solve housing challenges in the Commonwealth.

3 Analysis of prior housing studies

Chapter 3 collects the major community engagement themes from over a dozen regional and local housing studies completed across Virginia in the past several years. This information will help policymakers understand the types of housing challenges Virginians across the Commonwealth are experiencing.

4 Virginia’s housing markets

Chapter 4 outlines the three levels of geographic regions across Virginia used to describe housing needs and trends in different parts of the Commonwealth. The Research and Findings part of this report (Part 3) uses these market and submarket categories.

5 How we use data

Chapter 5 introduces the most common data sources used for this study and the definitions for demographic categories, such as race and ethnicity identifiers, used throughout the report.