With housing prices skyrocketing in Lake Havasu City during the pandemic, employers across town are beginning to report challenges in hiring new employees due to the lack of available housing. Businesses and workers in nearly every industry in town have many anecdotes about the lack of affordable housing locally. We have hard data to back it up. Havasu needs more affordable housing and workers’ housing.
The Partnership for Economic Development last year hired Elliott D. Pollack & Company to compile a housing needs assessment for Lake Havasu City. Scottsdale-based real estate and economic consultants combed through data from a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Mojave County Assessor’s Office, and local real estate agencies.
Pollack & Company’s final report, which details Havasu’s housing data, notes that the purpose of the assessment was to identify “affordability gaps” in the community. of the population. The report also presents several recommendations and strategies for addressing regional housing disparities.
The housing survey took about six months to complete and was completed in late November. It will be presented to the City Council during a work session scheduled for 4:45 pm today. This is before the regular meeting of the City Council, which starts at 6:00 pm.
PED President James Gray said the high housing costs in the report would not surprise many Havasu locals, who have been paying close attention in recent years. But the PED board believes it is valuable to obtain empirical data from third-party experts, he said.
“As a community, we already understand that there is a housing issue for workers,” Gray said. “Now that the research is complete, we no longer speak to potential developers with metaphors and analogies. The survey is a tool to help us understand what we are missing and what types of housing we need to add to overcome the overall housing mix to better fit other communities.”
With the recent surge in housing prices, the term “affordable housing” has become a buzzword. What is affordable for one person may not be affordable for another. However, Elliot D. Pollack & Company, in its study, defines “affordable” using the criterion that her 30% or less of household income goes toward housing costs.
Using a median income of $63,100 in Mojave County, the report calculates that the median household can afford to spend $1,475 per month on housing. In terms of buying a home, the median household would give her a maximum price of $273,000 to stay within her 30% of income.
According to the study, 7 of the 575 single-family homes sold in Havasu in 2022 were purchased for less than $273,000, and 53 of the 77 condominiums were purchased for less than $273,000. rice field.
Havasu’s median household income is $73,939, which is about $10,000 higher than the average Mojave household overall, but more than $10,000 less than the Arizona statewide average of $84,380.
According to this assessment, 31.1% of homeowner households spend 30% or more on housing, and 22.4% of them pay 35% or more of their household income.
For renters, these numbers are even higher. According to the assessment, 43.4% of all Havasu renters spend more than 30% of their household income on housing, with 19.1% of them paying more than 50% of their income. Havasu’s average rental household income is $38,800, 11% below the statewide median.
The assessment found that only 2.7% of Havasu’s residential units are apartments. That’s a total of 875 apartments, well below the statewide average of 13.5%.
“Previously, in a community that had affordable single-family homes under $200,000, this wasn’t an issue,” says Gray. “Our housing market has increased significantly in value over the past decade with steady growth in new residents and the need for affordable rental housing units has become a focus for our workforce. .”
Gray said the evaluation has already been shared with many local, state and regional developers to generate interest in developing apartments here in Havasu. He said he hopes the assessment will continue to help developers.
“Evaluating housing needs gives developers independent data to evaluate their developments within the market,” said Gray. “It also serves as a tool for developers to apply for subsidies to reduce the cost of renting housing by more than 30%,” he said.
The assessment concludes with a list of recommended strategies to improve access to affordable workforce housing in Havasu. The main purpose is to increase the number of apartments in town.
Evaluation includes encouraging infill development, coordinating with Mojave County and State on housing issues, increasing resources available to the City to support affordable housing, increasing headcount or working with nonprofit agencies , with a total of five strategies listed. We need city officials.
Today’s working session will be held inside the Council Chamber at the Police Facility at 2360 N. McCulloch Blvd. The meeting is public.
