Education, income up; housing a problem area

By Marcus Green
Louisville Courier-Journal

Louisville’s young residents are getting more college degrees, the crime rate is relatively low and the median family income is rising in comparison to 14 other cities in the South and Midwest.

Those signs of progress from 2000 to 2005 are included in a sweeping study to be released today, but they are tempered by figures showing declining African-American homeownership rates and fewer people living in affordable housing.

The study is the second “public report card” from the nonprofit Greater Louisville Project that looks at efforts to improve on weaknesses identified in a 2002 study done before Louisville and Jefferson County governments merged.

“What this tells us is that we do have positive momentum and if we put our minds to it as a community we could … really change this profile of Louisville as a community that tends to be in the bottom on many rankings,” said Carolyn Gatz, the project’s director.

Since the last study in 2005, the project set three goals that its organizers say will allow the city to move into the top ranks of competitor cities as diverse as Indianapolis; Nashville; Raleigh, N.C.; and Kansas City, Mo. They include adding 10,000 people between 25 and 34 with a bachelor’s or advanced degree by 2010.

That means more residents like Vidya Ravichandran, an entrepreneur who moved to Louisville from Des Moines, Iowa, in 1999. She earned her bachelor’s degree in India and a master’s degree in molecular biology from Virginia Tech.

Ravichandran worked for three years at National Processing, a credit-card processing operation, before helping launch an information technology company.

When you’re building a company from the ground up “you can have a good quality of life” in Louisville, said Ravichandran, 34. “You don’t have to sacrifice everything.”

The median family income in Louisville is climbing faster than in several of its competitor cities, but the report found that other more troubling economic measures also increased: Housing prices outpaced income growth, leading to rising foreclosures and a growing share of families paying more for housing.

In 2000, Louisville had the lowest percentage of households - 22 percent - living in homes considered unaffordable because housing costs used up more than 30 percent of their income. By 2005, that figure had risen to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, African-American homeownership rates in the city and the Louisville region at large continue to decline, while a growing share of white families own their own homes. The study did not address homeownership rates among other minorities.

Delores Smith hopes to reverse that trend. Smith recently completed a home-buying program offered by the Housing Partnership Inc. and was hunting for her first house yesterday.

“What they told me and what I was taught I didn’t know, and I wouldn’t have had a clue if I’d gone out by myself,” said Smith, an enrollment specialist at Humana. “The tools gave me a better understanding.”

The program is designed to help potential homeowners in need of financial assistance or who want to know more about buying a home. Goals include helping the participants get down-payment assistance and affordable mortgage loans.

The Housing Partnership, a nonprofit housing developer for low- to moderate-income families, was formed in 1989. About 67 percent of its clients are black, said Christie McCravy, the partnership’s director of homeownership.

“We have an overwhelming amount of minorities we serve, and because of declining homeownership rates and high foreclosure rates among those groups, making sure our clients receive sustainable loan products is a growing concern,” she said.

The Greater Louisville Project, which is funded by private foundations and other donors, aims to provide information that shapes the city’s civic agenda, Gatz said.

Project researchers pulled together data from the U.S. Census Bureau, state demographers and federal agencies to paint a picture of the finances, education and health of Louisville’s population.

In looking at data between 2000 and 2005, researchers found two areas in which Louisville gained the most compared with competitor cities:

33 percent of Louisvillians between 25 and 34 had at least a bachelor’s degree, up from 31 percent in 2000 and 23 percent in 1990. The increase moved the city ahead of Kansas City, Greensboro, N.C., Indianapolis and Birmingham, Ala.

Median family income climbed to $53,493, passing Kansas City, Birmingham and Jacksonville. That was an increase from $49,197 in 2000.

City, business and education leaders hope they can translate the report’s findings into action.

Joe Reagan, president and chief executive of Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce, said the report may help his organization determine policies to help meet the education goals, for instance.

And University of Louisville provost Shirley Willihnganz said the school will use the report’s data as it creates a new strategic plan.

Mayor Jerry Abramson said officials will likely cite the increasingly educated young work force as they recruit companies to the Louisville area. Another goal established by the Greater Louisville Project is to add 15,000 professional and technical jobs by 2010.

“I think you will see as we move more aggressively toward an expanding growth in professional and technical jobs we will use that as part of our presentation to give companies a comfort level they can grow and expand here,” Abramson said.

Reporter Marcus Green can be reached at (502) 582-4675.