09:16 AM EST on Friday, November 18, 2005

BY RANDAL EDGAR
Journal Staff Writer

After renting for more than 10 years, Thomas and Anna Moniz took the plunge this past summer and bought a house -- a brand-new, three-bedroom ranch in Cranston.

With a household income of about $40,000, buying would have been difficult without the help they received from Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization that builds homes with donations of labor and materials.

When the two-year construction project was done, the couple got a 20-year mortgage, with zero interest, and bought the house from Habitat for the below-market price of $50,000.

They now make monthly mortgage payments of $627, a figure that also includes their property taxes.

The arrangement means the Monizes are spending about 20 percent of their monthly income on housing -- well below the 30-percent limit recommended by the federal government.

Clearly unaccustomed to the spotlight, Thomas and Anna Moniz and their children, Tommy, 11, and Melissa, 7, stood briefly in front of more than 200 state officials, business leaders, community activists and others yesterday to represent those likely to be shut out of Rhode Island's housing market.

"When we found out that we got accepted for Habitat for Humanity, we felt like we won the lottery," Anna Moniz, a certified nurse's assistant, told a reporter later.

The couple's appearance was part of a news conference held to release a study on housing problems released by HousingWorksRI, an unusual coalition of more than 100 social service agencies, businesses, corporations and developers.

Among the report's conclusions:

* A $50,000 household income won't buy a single-family house at the median price in any of Rhode Island's cities and towns and keep the monthly payments within the 30-percent federal guideline. Using sales figures from 2004, median prices vary from a low of $185,000 in Providence to a high of $550,000 in East Greenwich.

* A $75,000 household income will buy a median-priced, single-family house in just six communities: Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, Warwick, West Warwick and Woonsocket.

* A $35,000 household income won't pay the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the state. Using a survey of apartment ads from 2004, the average ranges from a low of $881 in Central Falls to a high of $1,382 in East Greenwich.

"Make no mistake about it, the housing crisis is a very real issue for the business community, and it truly affects the state's economic health," said Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, one of a half-dozen speakers.

Governor Carcieri said the issue is one that supersedes any trace of partisan politics. "This is where you put everybody's heads together and say 'what makes sense?' " he said.

While it was a time for speechmaking, it was not a time for proposing solutions.

"This is a problem, a crisis that can be resolved," said House Majority Leader Gordon D. Fox, D-Providence. "Today we take the very first step in solving that problem. We educate ourselves."

The report provides a snapshot for each community in the state, starting with median single-family house prices in 1999 and 2004. For example, in Cranston, where the Monizes live, the median price rose 113 percent, from $112,500 to $240,000 during the five-year span.

To buy that $240,000 house with a 30-year mortgage and a 3-percent down payment, the monthly bill would be $1,935, a figure covering mortgage payments, taxes and insurance. Using the federal guideline of spending no more than 30 percent of income on housing, the household income needed to afford such monthly payments would have to be $77,400.

The report also summarizes each community's current housing stock. For example, Cranston has 31,968 year-round housing units, of which 1,776, or 5.5 percent, are subsidized and income-restricted, the two conditions in the state's definition of "affordable." However, the report also says that 3,530 households in Cranston are paying more than half their income for housing.

Journal photo / Connie Grosch

Anna Moniz, center, at home in Cranston with son Tommy, 11, left, and daughter Melissa,7. "When we found out that we got accepted for Habitat for Humanity," she says, "we felt like we won the lottery."

The state's Low and Moderate Income Housing Act says each city and town should be working toward the goal of having 10 percent of its housing qualify as affordable. Because of the city's large number of subsidzed rental units, Cranston is one of five communities exempt from that goal.

The report indicates that 6 out of 10 Rhode Island households are not earning enough to buy a median-priced house. Asked how to reconcile this dire finding with the fact that Rhode Island has seen record housing sales this year, Richard Godfrey, executive director of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation, offered several reasons: Many of those buyers are not first-time buyers, which means they have built up equity. Others are from out of state, often Massachusetts, where housing prices are even higher. Still others are buying on speculation that prices will continue to rise. And some are simply overextended.

The news conference was held at Pearl Street Lofts, in Providence, in a mixed-use building that's being renovated into 19 condominiums, including four that will be affordable, selling at below-market prices.

Find more data on housing affordability throughout the state, in the full HousingWorks RI factbook, and talk about how the price of housing has affected you, at:

http://projo.com