I am doing some research and would like to create a sort of "housing affordability index" or "housing hardship index," which gives some idea of housing issues in individual cities.

I have considered the following factors, as reported in the American Community Survey:

A. Occupants per Room (<1, 1.0 to 1.5, >1,5)
B. Homes Lacking Plumbing
C. Homes Lacking Telephone
D. Homes Lacking Full Kitchen
E. Mean Travel Time to Work
F. Selected Costs as a Percentage of Income
G. Gross Rent as a Percentage of Income

The problem is, I have no idea how to create an index. Ultimately, I suppose I just want to be able to rank cities on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the worst.

I guess in general, I'm asking how you would weight these and what equation you might create to come up with such a ranking. I worry that I run the risk of being totally subjective. Also, it confuses me that I'm mixing things that would be assigned a value (plumbing, travel time, etc.) and things that have a value (gross rent as % of income).

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven