Want to know what it costs you to live where you live?
What is the LAP and why did it get developed?
The official definition of the Location Affordability Portal (LAP): It’s a calculator for you to determine the “combined” housing and transportation costs of living at a specific address. A Joint Project by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and the Dept. of Transportation as part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Whether it is accurate or not is another question.
The official answer to why it was developed: Since when you add all of your transportation costs of owning a vehicle and paying for gas to get you back/forth to work/retail to your 30%+ cost of housing, it becomes the largest cost factor of owning a home. (With the possible exception of living in the home: home repair, maintenance and utilities.) Oh, and to give the average person guidance to see the estimated cost of deciding to live at one address over another.
Now, what it really means? A tool to persuade you to move into congested areas and take/demand/become reliant on Government provided public transportation.
Oh, and the State of Minnesota has one too – The MSP H+T Calculator is a customizable tool designed to estimate the combined housing and transportation costs and compare your details with the average cost in the neighborhood. It is specifically designed to explore various housing and transportation choices and the overall financial impact of living closer to or farther from work. Well, isn’t that special?