STAUNTON – When a home goes on the market in in the valley, within six days it is already sold.
“That is among the tightest markets in the country,” said Mel Jones with the Virginia Center for Housing Research.
Jones was one of several speakers at the SAW Housing Summit held at the Blackburn Inn on June 27. The event was packed, with over 100 people filling the reception hall representing Waynesboro City Council, Staunton City Council, government staff in Augusta County, bank representatives, and organizations working to find homes and shelter for those in need.
How did we become ‘among the tightest markets in the country’?
In a competitive housing market, sellers have the advantage. Many of the sellers would rather take cash offers than first-time homebuyers getting help from Virginia Housing of FHA.
“When they know they have a line out the door of people with contingencies to increase the sale price well beyond what they're asking, they can just take cash, right?" Jones said. "So it excludes first time home buyers, it excludes people with low and moderate incomes from the market, and eventually, if it gets bad enough, like it is in this region, it starts to make a problem for everybody.”
Now locked out of buying a home, low to moderate income families turn to renting. The rental market then gets tight, no one wanting to move out for fear of not being able to secure another rental.
“When we have those lines of waiting lists out the door for a unit, landlords don't have to worry about the condition of their property. They don’t have to worry about how well they’re maintaining their property in order to lease it up. Instead, they can kind of let it go and if you don't like it, that's fine. We'll let the next person take it.”
Other barriers to entry form, such as requiring multiple months of rent down in prepayments, applicant fees to apartments low to moderate income residents could be turned away from, and high security deposits.
“They know you can’t meet that burden, so the people with low to moderate income are the last to choose in a market. In a market like yours, there’s nothing left. The last thing to choose is wholly substandard housing, like living in your car or living in a shed.”
While there are local organizations looking to combat homelessness, Jones argued affordable housing is central to fixing the problem at its root.
An upcoming report to show how to improve the market
Jonathan Knopf, a researcher with HousingForward Virginia, has been studying the SAW housing market. A report on the local housing market, the SAW Regional Housing Study, will be available online here once it is published.
Even with the upcoming study, Knopf recommended getting more data. Of the localities, only Waynesboro keeps data on housing conditions.
All three localities are working on updates to their comprehensive plans, and Knopf recommended the process be used to “nail down what the scope and the scale of the problem is.”
“What are the specific quality issues in these homes?” he asked. “How many are actually vacant? What are the tax delinquency status of these?” This information would then allow governments to address the issues using powers they already have.
Another recommendation was increasing the kinds of housing available. Knopf and Jones both recommended adding more multi-unit homes development opportunities to all three comprehensive plans.
“How do you take those needs and translate that into actions that actually create those missing housing types that don't exist?” said Knopf. “[Those types] have been difficult to build or impossible to build because land regulations, limited financing opportunities, just unfamiliarity among developers.”
How to get involved
After the conference, Anna Leavitt with Community Action Staunton, Augusta, Waynesboro (CAPSAW) sent a link giving a way for anyone and everyone willing to get involved to do so.
A video of the conference will also be available online here once it is published.
Another Lunch and Learn event is scheduled at noon on Thursday, July 11 at The Russell Museum in Waynesboro. More information is available at https://sawhousing.com.
Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.
Most Popular
Comments / 0