The current housing recovery may be like manna to homeowners, but it may do little to ease a growing shortage of affordable residences, and could even make it worse. After a recession-generated drought, household formation is on the rise, notes a recent study by the Harvard Joint Center on Housing Studies, and in many markets there isn’t an adequate supply of housing for the working and middle classes.
Given problems with regulations in some states, particularly restrictions on new single-family home development, the uptick in housing prices threatens both prospective owners and renters, forcing people who would otherwise buy into the rental market. Ownership levels continue to drop, most notably for minorities, particularly African Americans. Last year, according to the Harvard study, the number of renters in the U.S. rose by a million, accompanied by a net loss of 161,000 homeowners.
This is bad news not only for middle-income Americans but even more so for the poor and renters. . . .This article highlights the need for affordable and workforce housing in Fairfax County, and especially in Reston where diversity is a core value.
In fact, as presented to the Reston Task Force, this is one of the few areas of the draft areawide and station area (Phase 1) that actually advances the community's values. At its core, the draft language proposes an increasing proportion of workforce (but not affordable) housing consistent with the increasing density of urban residential construction.
The broader issue, however, is how people will afford to live in Fairfax County if the trends Professor Kotkin identifies continue in the absence of federal policy to change the situation.
Until we have an analysis of how many people are needed at each income level, we will not know how many houses we need at each price level. The location of the needed houses (and jobs) must then be ascertained. The houses need not be in Fairfax County if public transportation into the county is available -- or if enough roads are built. It is not obvious that (subsidized) affordable housing is needed for those earning $72,000 per year or that (subsidized) workforce housing is needed for those earning $144,000 per year -- the present criteria as applied by county personnel. Whether they are subsidized by the developer or by the county, they are not market-rate housing.
ReplyDeleteFred--
ReplyDeleteI'll disagree with you at a technical level. The housing is not "subsidized"--ie, someone receiving stipends to cover rent/purchase. It is a "quota"--a mandated share of housing made available for those with limited income. That is consistent with Reston's diversity goal--housing for all.
Regards, Terry