CdA to examine ‘work-force’ housing costs

Wanted: A few perceptive comments from ordinary folks about Coeur d’Alene’s real estate market.

Affordable housing is the topic of two public forums at City Hall this week. As part of the discussion, residents will get a chance to sound off on whether Coeur d’Alene is still an affordable market.

BBC Research and Consulting will conduct the forums. The Denver firm has been hired to create a long-range housing assessment and plan for the city.

Work-force housing is the focus of the study, said Tony Berns, executive director of Lake City Development Corp., which is Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency.

“It’s not low-income housing,” he said. “It’s housing for your firemen, your police officers and your nurses.”

Work-force housing is loosely defined as housing for families who earn 80 to 120 percent of the area’s median family income – which would be $40,000 to $60,000 in Kootenai County.

Anecdotally, Berns said, he’s hearing about employers having trouble recruiting workers because the cost of housing has risen so rapidly. “And these are professional level jobs,” he said.

The study will examine wages for various jobs and calculate whether people who work at them earn enough to buy a home. City officials are particularly interested in learning if people in critical service jobs – such as teachers, firefighters and nurses – can afford homes here.

Kootenai County’s median housing price was $212,232 at the end of June. The market’s affordability has dropped steadily for several years, according to an index calculated by the Washington State University’s Center for Real Estate Research. The index looks at the ability of a middle-income family to pay the mortgage on a median-priced home.

The $45,000 study will also examine apartment rents. The study is being paid for by the city, Lake City Development Corp., and the Idaho Housing and Finance Association.