Housing affordability gets attention

A $58,000 gap exists between what the typical Spokane County household can afford to spend on housing and the price of a mid-range home. But that disparity does not approach the severity of the housing crisis in King County, which is failing to meet 44 percent of the demand for new homes created by job growth.

Spokane County still has time to reverse the trend and provide affordable housing to the workers who keep the economy running, said Sam Pace, a Realtor and official with the Seattle/King County Association of Realtors.

“Here in Spokane the opportunity to seize control of your future is still within your hands,” Pace said in a keynote address on Thursday. “If you’re in a hole, stop digging.”

Pace spoke at an affordable housing seminar hosted by the Spokane Association of Realtors and the Spokane Home Builders Association. The subject is considered so important to this community’s viability that the National Realtors Association awarded the Spokane chapter one of six $3,000 grants, said Derrick Braaten, government affairs director for the Home Builders.

The statewide Realtors Association also kicked in $4,000 to support the effort. The money and assistance from support staff at both organizations made the seminar possible and will go forward to form an affordable housing task force that will continue to address the issue in Spokane County.

Quality of life is what attracts new residents to an area, but a family that struggles to buy a home can’t even begin to think about ways to make life more enjoyable, Pace said. If the housing supply does not meet the demand, wealthier residents out-bid others for housing, but the demand remains among lower-paid workers.

“Actual demand applies at the moment the worker is here,” Pace said.

When a county fails to provide adequate housing stock, he said, sprawl occurs as residents drive and drive until they find a place where they can afford home. Research shows a family will take a lower-paying job in a place where they can afford a home, instead of a higher-paying job where they can’t, he said.

More than 30,000 people are moving annually to Washington from California with money to spend from lucrative home sales there, ensuring the situation will continue, Pace said. Politicians in this region must put aside partisan differences and join together to address the issue, he said. The cities and county must build the roads, sewer and water lines necessary for new housing units now so they’re available when development projects are proposed.

“We’re looking for leaders who want to work with us,” Pace said.