With inventory down 25%, homes values increasing, rents skyrocketing, and more people relocating to the area, the Pacific Northwest housing market continues to struggle with a housing affordability crisis. The Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBA) predicts more of the same for the spring housing market as prices continue to go up and demand stays tight in the rapidly growing region.
Despite efforts to add more housing, including an increase in apartment home construction in the region, the demand for housing has significantly outpaced supply, says MBA executive director Shannon Affholter. “Lack of buildable land and other barriers to new home construction have contributed significantly to escalating housing costs and a housing supply shortage in King and Snohomish counties,” she says. “Unfortunately, this is making it harder for families and workers to find attainable housing near job centers.”
The association has prepared an issue brief to discuss ways the Puget Sound region can make housing more attainable and create a healthier, more sustainable balance between housing supply and demand. Suggested solutions include:
• Address regulatory barriers that limit supply and increase the cost of housing. Policy makers should seek opportunities to create more efficiencies and flexibility in how regulations are implemented while still meeting their intended purpose, the brief says.
• Focus policy action on buildable land supply. The state legislature and local governments must adopt viable solutions to expand housing supply and choices and make the state’s Growth Management Act work as intended.
• Incentivize more housing opportunities near job centers. Policymakers should consider more incentive-based approaches to promoting affordable housing.
• Stabilize funding for housing and homeless programs. The state’s efforts to stabilize funding for housing and homeless programs should occur hand in hand with reasonable efforts to increase the supply of housing near job centers.
“The housing affordability crisis only appears to be getting worse,” Affholter adds. “We must advance solutions to address our lack of affordable and attainable housing and improve our region’s quality of life.”
