At last I finished my final projects! I feel very satisfied with what I have done, as this is the first webpage that I have ever made.

When I finally got done with my final package, I sent it to my friend in Shanghai to ask for feedback. Her first comment was that affordable housing in the U.S. is a heavy topic. Another comment I received was that my project as a whole attempted to illustrate the problem from a perspective that emphasized the country’s quickly soaring house prices and somewhat overlooked Americans’ stalling income levels. According to my friend, such a biased point of view will paint too simple a picture-I agree.In fact, I have thought in depth about this problem. The reasons why people cannot afford housing are somewhat complicated. While some Americans are lazy, most are hard working and driven, but still cannot afford their own house. Even more, this is not only a problem in the United States; the whole world is affected. In fact, this issue is even more severe outside the U.S. Along with the urbanization and industrialization, global real estate prices are soaring higher and higher. Three web pages definitely cannot cover such a broad subject, so I think it would be best to focus on the disproportionate rise in house prices and the augmentation in household incomes.

On my introduction page, I introduce this issue. What is affordable housing? How severe is the shortage is in U.S.? I use the concept of “American Dream”, as I think this all-American idea can make audiences feel more involved.

In the slideshow page, I use a sound slide that combines the interviews of a citizen affected by lack of affordable housing and an official working to solve the problem. A few questions are addressed. What is it like to struggle with those difficulties? Is there help on the way? What people think is the main cause of this issue? In the sound slide, I try to illustrate that the perception that those who cannot afford housing are lazy is mistaken. In fact, most people work diligently to achieve their “American Dream”.

My data package contains a chart which clearly illustrates the change from 1974 to 2006. The data is relevant and updated, which I think can really help me illustrate the problem. Besides, I included government data on this page that shows readers what the government has done to solve the problem. Because of other factors such as inflation and regulations, it seems that the government cannot do much.