A home is usually the biggest expense for most people every month, whether it’s a mortgage or a rental payment. But the inflation monster of the last few years has made home affordability a big, big challenge for a lot of folks. Just how bad is it?
Here are Five Fast Facts on housing challenges in Washington State:
- 📈 Up, Up, Up - The good news is that the median household income is up almost 78% since 2000. The bad news is that the median home price has nearly tripled in the same timeframe (it’s up 40% since the pandemic alone). Adjusted for inflation, income is up 4.5% but home prices are up almost 60%. Even a third grader could tell you that’s ugly math.
- 😱 Killer Ratio - Comparing median home price to median income is one of the best measures of home affordability. The national ratio is 4.7, but here in the Evergreen State it’s 6.3. It’s up almost 49% in just the last five years.
- 😣 Light On The Low End - A recent report from the state’s Commerce Department showed that one of the biggest problems is a lack of affordable housing for lower income families. The state has over 155k units for low- or moderate-income families…but over 700k families fit that category. Since 2015, over ⅓ of the state’s households have rents over 30% of their income. And that makes it all but impossible to save for a down payment on a home purchase.
- 🌳 County Crisis - Almost ⅔ of the state’s affordable housing is in the Puget Sound region, and almost half is in King County alone. This means the problem is worse in many local areas than even the overall numbers suggest.
- 🏙️ On The Streets - Homelessness is growing across the state, too. In 2016 there were 173 homeless for every 10k residents. In 2020 the number was up to 180 despite the state spending hundreds of millions of dollars on various homelessness programs. Addressing the symptoms rather than the root causes will do that.
🔥Bottom line: All of these things roll up together in one giant ball of struggle. Construction is finally inching back upward, but there’s still not enough being built to meet the need for low- and middle-income families. Let’s hope our state’s leaders can figure out ways to address this problem at the root level, and get us some real solutions.
What do you think should be done about home prices?
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