Issue date: April 21, 1999
**Median house price in San Mateo County in May 1998: $338,000. Only 17 percent of households in the county could afford it.
**Average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the MidPeninsula: $1,291. Increased 31 percent over last two years.
**Lots of jobs, little housing: Last year San Mateo County added 15,000 jobs and 1,700 new units of housing. Approximately 200 of those units are affordable to families with moderate or low incomes.
**By the year 2010 there will be a need for 16,000 to 25,000 new housing units, even after all the housing planned in local cities is built.
**Transportation: Eight out of 10 new employees will have to live outside the county and commute.
**Jobs: An estimated 58,000 new jobs will be created by 2003 due to 15 million square feet of building under construction or approved along Bayshore Corridor.
**Lower end of rental market hit hardest: Most of the housing shortfall will impact people of modest incomes -- for example, a family of four with income below $50,000 per year seeking to rent.
**Shortage of subsidized units: The San Mateo County Housing Authority has a list of 12,000 qualified households waiting for 3,400 units with federally subsidized rent.
**Shared housing: 1,120 housing units are shared each year through the Human Investment Project.
**Homeless: In 1996 4,663 people in the county were homeless. 32 percent were children.
Source: San Mateo County; San Mateo County Economic Development Association.
© 1999 The Almanac. All Rights Reserved.