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Guest column for the Bellingham Herald From Paul Schissler
Affordable housing means what?
Affordable housing comes up a lot during campaign season and every candidate is in favor of affordable housing. Who isn't?
Supply and demand? Housing talk almost always starts with a comment about supply and demand, as if it was as simple as lettuce pricing (as if that was simple, either). But if the Whatcom County housing supply was responding to demand, we would be seeing a huge number of homes for sale where the demand is greatest: starter homes priced from $90,000 to $160,000. Thousands of hard-working local families would be great mortgage customers (steady income, good credit rating) but what good is a $105,000 mortgage if there is no supply of homes in that price range?
Other factors push housing suppliers to deliver pricier homes where demand continues to be strong, with no let-up in sight for homes at $180,000 and above. Roughly 75% of our population increase has been moving here from elsewhere, and the word is out: Whatcom County is a wonderful place to live.
Painful irony There's a downside to the great work we all have been doing to create such a desirable, livable community: great places get too expensive for the people who helped make them great and for the people who work here. We're already suffering with commuter traffic because so many of us cannot afford to live near our jobs.
Land supply or regulations? I wish the solution was as simple as increasing the land zoned for housing or decreasing the cost of government regulations. That won't work. Even if land supply went up and regulations were cut in half, we would not see new homes priced in sync with wages. Economics would still encourage homes aimed at the $200,000 plus market. We would end up with Seattle- and Atlanta-style sprawl and smog, and our housing prices would not come down. Our taxes would go up to subsidize development, and we'd further endanger our farmland and salmon.
What makes sense? More homes where services already exist, and unless we can get to an average of 12 or more homes per acre, residential development will continue to cost more in services than it pays in taxes and fees. If you think 12 sounds high, you might want to see "Honey, I shrunk the lots!" on October 27, 7:30 PM at the Courthouse, with architect William Kreager showcasing appealing, quality homes at higher densities. When neighborhoods have walkable access to amenities, shops and jobs, adding more homes increases vitality, desirability and property values. People travel the world to visit lively, compact urban centers. Let's pick a few towns to emulate. (I'm only talking about where we grow and what it looks like; how fast we choose to grow is a whole other discussion.)
How about a goal Whatcom County could aim to reach by 2020: A healthy community with home prices in sync with wages and incomes, with a balanced mix of housing types, sizes and prices within walking distance to where we work, play and learn.
With that goal, a huge economic engine is waiting to rev-up to meet the demand for affordable homeownership. Contractors and suppliers would be busier than ever, and happy to build homes that local employees could afford to buy. Mortgage lenders, Realtors, appliance and carpet dealers - the effects would ripple through the economy. Kids and families would move around less, knowing they were building equity for college or retirement. Whatever the number of homes we build per year, we know at least half the homes need to be affordable at less than average working wages. And we better put homes close to jobs, or else traffic and road costs will be worse than ever.
Luckily for us all, Whatcom County is a place where we look out for each other. We volunteer, and we organize through nonprofits, churches, PTAs and local government. That's part of the culture we inherited from those who were here before us.
We can do this. We can't control global trends that dampen local wage rates, but together we can make a wonderful quality of life affordable. Getting there will take some doing, and Whatcom County might as well be the place it begins.
Paul Schissler, a community planning consultant, co-founded Kulshan Community Land Trust and serves as its executive director.
Editor's note: Schissler will write a follow-up column with ideas for reaching the suggested 2020 housing goal.
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