Question: How Can CDA Keep Housing Affordable

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.” (For the rest of the SR article by Becky Kramer, click here .)

DFO: The blue-collar workers have already claimed theirs, if … they are middle-aged and able to buy several years ago, both parents work, or they cashed in elsewhere. If not …

Question: What does Coeur d’Alene need to do to keep housing affordable for the working class?