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million unit gap between supply and demand for affordable housing <br />units. <br />Figure 10 shows that lower income households are more likely to be <br />severely cost -burdened and that the share of households with severe cost - <br />burden increased between 2001 and 2010. The number of severely cost - <br />burdened households earning under $15,000 annually increased by about <br />1.5 million households between 2007 and 2010, which was nearly twice the <br />increase between 2001 and 2007. With low-wage jobs increasing and <br />wages for those jobs stagnating, affordability problems will persist even as <br />strong fundamentals lift the trajectory of residential investment. <br />Figure 10. Percentage of households with severe cost burden by <br />household income, 2001, 2007, and 2010 <br />70 --....__. .... <br />60 <br />50 <br />40 <br />30 <br />20 <br />10 <br />Less than 515,0{]0 <br />$15,000 29.999 <br />0 2001 0 2407 0 2010 <br />Household Income <br />=,DOD <br />44,999 <br />Source: State of the Nation's Housing, 2012. The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, p. 28. <br />hftp://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research/state—nations—housing. <br />The Joint Center for Housing Studies points to widening income <br />disparities, decreasing federal assistance, and depletion of inventory <br />through conversion or demolition as three factors exacerbating the lack of <br />affordable housing. While the Harvard report presents a relatively <br />optimistic long -run outlook for housing markets and for homeownership, <br />it points to the significant difficulties low- and moderate -income <br />households face in finding affordable housing and preserving the <br />affordable units that do exist. <br />According to the Joint Center for Housing Studies, these statistics <br />understate the true magnitude of the affordability problem because they <br />Part 11 — Eugene Housing Needs Analysis ECONorthwest Page 45 <br />