There are two different definitions of housing stress used in .id's community suite. Atlas.id uses the NATSEM definition. Housing.id uses a new definition that state governments are increasingly using to define housing stress.
Why are the numbers different for housing stress in atlas.id and housing.id?
Atlas.id and housing.id use slightly different definitions of housing stress. Both count households paying more than 30% of household income on housing.
Where they differ is in the way that they filter out wealthier households. Atlas includes households in the bottom 40% of incomes, whereas housing.id includes very low, low and moderate-income households, resulting in an inclusion of households in just over the bottom 50%.
The numbers in atlas.id are roughly the equivalent as the total of very low income and low income households in housing.id. Therefore, the numbers in housing.id are larger, because they include a broader range of household incomes, but break it down to give you more nuanced numbers later on.
Atlas.id uses the NATSEM (2015) definition of housing stress:
Households in the lowest 40% of incomes who are paying more than 30% of their usual gross weekly income on housing
In housing.id, we use the new standard definition of housing stress, as legislated in the Vic government Planning and Environment Act:
Very low income, low income and moderate-income households who are paying more than 30% of their usual gross weekly income on housing
- People described as being on a very low income are those earning less than 50% of the Regional Victoria or Greater Melbourne median income, depending on where they live.
- People earning more than 50% but less than 80% of the Regional Victoria or Greater Melbourne median income are described as earning a low income.
- People described as being on a moderate income are those earning between 80-120% of the Regional Victoria or Greater Melbourne median income.
This definition is broader, and includes more households (essentially an addition of the moderate income range), but more nuanced, in that it allows you to drill in deeper into the income bands and focus on those most vulnerable.
The atlas.id NATSEM definition is roughly the equivalent of using only the Very low income and low income bands in housing,id.
For example:
Total of very low income and low income households in mortgage stress
4,057
Which is close to the NATSEM total in atlas.id of 3,970
Further reading
We've written in more detail about these two definitions of housing stress in this blog.
We also published this blog showing which Local Government Areas in our fastest growing states show the highest rates of hosuing stress.