By Stu Johnson
Lexington, KY – The UK study looked at the availability of owner occupied and rental housing over a nine year period. Christopher Jepsen of the UK Center for Business and Economic Research says low income residents will still struggle to find affordable housing. He says Lexington's large number of college students makes it difficult to assess affordability among the poor
"temporarily low while they're in school it's very hard to distinguish those people from someone that's making ten thousand dollars a year who's not in school and is really struggling and so that's why we don't focus on that In our results as much because in Lexington it's kind of hard to disentangle the two".
Jepsen says federal housing subsidies are doing a good job of helping people afford housing. The UK economist says there hasn't been a huge run up in house prices in the Lexington area. Jepsen adds there hasn't been excessive building of housing units in the Fayette county that would create a glut in the market.