House prices beyond many in CdA

The American dream of home ownership is fading for many Coeur d’Alene residents, according to a study released Friday.

Families earning less than $50,000 per year – which represent about half the city’s population – have difficulty finding a home they can afford in the current housing market, according to a study done by BBC Research & Consulting of Denver.

Renters also face rising housing costs. Last year, 60 percent of the city’s renters could afford the median rent of $540 per month, the study indicated. But within five years, workers in three of the city’s 10 fast-growing jobs – food preparation, health care support and building/maintenance occupations – will have difficultly affording rents, the study projected.

The $45,000 study was commissioned by the city of Coeur d’Alene, its urban renewal agency and the Idaho Housing and Finance Commission. It’s the first local effort to compare housing prices to what local workers can afford to buy or rent.

“We’ve been watching the escalating houses prices, and we realized that we had a lot of people that weren’t getting into the housing market,” said Dixie Reid, a Coeur d’Alene City Council member who also sits on the urban renewal agency board. “We also realized there were a lot of things we could do to mitigate that.”

Coeur d’Alene still has time, she said, to avoid a Sun Valley-type housing situation. The city wants to be pro-active, so that service workers don’t end up commuting to distant corners of Kootenai County because they can’t afford to live in town. Reid said the study’s end goal is vibrant Coeur d’Alene neighborhoods, home to people of varying income levels.

“Just because someone can’t afford a $250,000 house doesn’t mean they’re a bad person,” Reid said.

The 163-page report will be discussed at two city meetings on Dec. 19. It recommends several ways to preserve and increase Coeur d’Alene’s affordable housing. Encouraging private developers to add below-market-rate units to their projects is one of the suggestions. High-end housing at the southern edge of downtown could be a target for the incentives, the report said. The city should also apply for federal block grants, it said. Having a pool of money to help low-income homeowners with emergency repairs would preserve existing affordable housing.

Coeur d’Alene isn’t the only North Idaho community wrestling with rapidly escalating housing prices.

“What you see in places like Coeur d’Alene or Kellogg or Sandpoint is happening all over the West, especially in resort communities,” said Chris Venne of Community Frameworks, a Spokane-based agency that works with communities on affordable housing. “Housing prices have gone up 50 to 75 percent; wages have gone up 2 to 5 percent.”

The influx of retirees, investors and people looking for vacation homes has become a large contributor to the rise in housing prices, Venne noted. That trend’s not likely to go away, he said. Every time that a national publication lists Coeur d’Alene or Sandpoint or Kellogg as the “best retirement place” or “most affordable ski community” it puts a bull’s-eye on the community, Venne said.

Affordable housing, once an issue for the low-income, has become a concern for middle-income earners as well, he said. It’s also becoming a significant issue for employers, he added. Venne is currently working with government officials in Shoshone County, where rising home costs have made it difficult for the sheriff’s department to recruit new deputies.

“What does it mean to live in a community that can’t hire sheriff’s deputies or firefighters or hospital workers?” he asked.

In Coeur d’Alene, affordability for the middle class has become an issue in the last five years. Households earning between $25,000 and $50,000 can afford to buy homes in the $83,500 to $167,000 range, the BBC Research report said. Since 2001, however, homes in that price range have nearly disappeared from the market. Buyers paid nearly $202,000 this year for a median-priced home in the Coeur d’Alene/Dalton area, according to research by Windermere Realty.

The median price for rents, meanwhile, has risen 11 percent. Though the jump isn’t as severe as the increase in home prices, it’s still catching some people by surprise, said Jim Elder, a Coeur d’Alene restaurant owner and urban renewal agency member. That cute little house you rented downtown for $250 a month five years ago might now be $500, he said.

BBC Research also looked at how Coeur d’Alene’s housing needs differed from neighboring cities. Coeur d’Alene has the highest poverty rates – 13 percent – and the lowest proportion of married couples. People who live alone account for 28 percent of the Coeur d’Alene’s households.

The city needs to look at the housing needs of its distinct populations, the study said, including college students, the elderly, and the poor.