Study: Housing, transportation costly in Sonoma County

To live in Sonoma County, residents spend a bigger chunk of their incomes on transportation and housing than anywhere else in the Bay Area, a new study concludes.

The average county household spends an estimated $39,245 a year for housing and transportation, according to a study by the nonprofit Urban Land Institute of Washington, D.C. The costs amount to 66 percent of average household income.

In contrast, the average Bay Area household spends only 59 percent of its income on the two categories.

“It’s transportation costs that make you stand out,” said Keith Wardrip, a senior research associate with the Center for Housing Policy in Washington, D.C. and a researcher for the study.

Transportation spending in Sonoma County, which averaged $14,503 per household, is among the highest in the Bay Area. Sonoma ties with Solano County for transportation costs, which consume an average 23 percent of household income.

Sonoma County’s household income of $62,348 was the lowest in the nine Bay Area counties, the study reported. That figure compares with $75,103 for the entire Bay Area.

As a result, housing and transportation costs gobble up a bigger chunk of incomes in Sonoma County. Across the Bay Area, the typical household spends $41,420 on the two categories — a larger dollar amount, but smaller portion of their incomes.

Earlier studies comparing housing and income have concluded that Sonoma County is less affordable than most other parts of the country.

“It doesn’t shock me that Sonoma County’s a relatively high spender on housing and transportation,” said Robert Eyler, a Sonoma State University professor who heads the school’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis.

The latest study used AAA’s estimate for the annual cost of owning and operating a car, $5,569, plus 15.1 cents a mile. But the transportation costs then were estimated by factoring in such items as neighborhood density, availability of public transit, average commute time and household size.

When applied to suburban Sonoma County, those factors are “just going to drive up transportation costs,” said Eduardo Martinez, a senior economist with Moody’s Economy.com.

Compared to the rest of the Bay Area, the county has relatively less public transit services, less dense neighborhoods and a greater distance between homes and jobs.

The study’s housing data is from 2005 to 2007, a time when the county’s median home price ranged between $500,000 and $600,000, compared to $350,000 in September. It was unclear whether the changes in home prices and personal income would alter the county’s ranking among Bay Area counties.

Ben Stone, director of Sonoma County’s Economic Development Board, maintained that many out-of-county commuters work in high-paying positions, meaning a much smaller portion of their income actually goes toward transportation.

“Part of it is just the way the economy works,” Stone said. “Some of us with higher-value jobs will commute to Marin County and San Francisco.”