In a report released at this week’s Urban Land Institute meeting, the high costs of housing and transportation were characterized as “an extreme burden” for Bay Area households.

The rule of thumb, which applies to most of the country, is that 30 percent of your income should go to housing and transportation. In the Bay Area, the average household pays 59 percent of their income for these costs; in communities such as Berkeley, San Pablo, Richmond and East Palo Alto it tops 70 percent of the household income, according to Bay Area Burden, a new report by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Such high percentages leave many households with insufficient income remaining to meet their basic needs.

“This has severe implications for family life and worker productivity,” stated Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. “Housing that appears affordable based solely on housing costs may not be truly affordable when it is located far from transit, jobs and services.”

At the press conference announcing the report, a number of ideas for the future came to light:

• TOD (transit-oriented development), high-density communities on transit lines, has the potential to favorably impact the environment and quality of life.

• Government incentives and regulatory relief are needed to encourage developers to build workforce housing through public/private partnerships.

• Over the next 25 years, the Bay Area is projected to grow by 1.6 million new residents. This growth presents an opportunity to integrate land use, housing, and transportation policies to encourage new residential development in areas that are well-served by public transit or near job centers.

What’s YOUR economic burden for housing and transportation? The ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing has developed a calculator to tell you exactly. By changing the variables, you can see how living near transit impacts the costs—and how the “drive till you qualify” syndrome may not be the best solution.