TEMPE (Arizona Republic) June 18, 2005 -
Home prices are jumping as much in a month now as they did in a year during
the late 1990s. Based on median sales figures released last week, people are
now paying about $235,000 for your average used home in the Valley.
Economists agree the boom won't last forever, but few think the Valley's housing bubble will burst in catastrophic fashion.
If incomes don't rise as fast as home prices, and Valley homes cost more than $200,000 from here on out, homeownership may be nothing more than a dream for many low- and moderate-income families.
But maybe not in Tempe, if the City Council's evolving housing strategy pays off.
City staffers are ferreting out several ideas to encourage low-income and workforce housing. Once the specifics are ironed out, the council hopes to bundle several approaches into one comprehensive strategy.
This strategy couldn't come at a better time. The city - and, well, pretty much the entire East Valley - is facing out-of-control home prices and an increased number of investors snatching up properties and turning them into rentals.
But Tempe, historically a working-class city, is also dealing with resident concerns that upscale high-rises will gentrify low- to moderate-income neighborhoods surrounding downtown.
The market is not providing affordable housing on its own. Developers recently dropped an affordable-housing component from a proposed multifamily project near Priest Drive and Elliot Road because the federal regulations would have been too onerous.
All the more reason for Tempe to step to the plate.
The city is partnering with non-profit community organizations, such as Chicanos Por La Causa and NewTown, to build affordable homes in city-owned vacant lots.
It hopes to encourage workforce housing along the future light-rail line and is working with a developer to convert an aged strip mall into housing.
Tempe may also make upscale developers pay a fee or offer units within their developments at a lower price.
The ideas aren't that groundbreaking, and the idea of just what is "affordable" remains quite nebulous. Residents need specifics to really embrace this strategy.
But we're glad the council recognizes the need to make Tempe attractive for people of all income levels. Out-priced families are already fleeing to the outskirts, contributing to urban sprawl. But there will come a point when the outskirts are too far from jobs or too expensive to justify the commute, and an important segment of our population will flee the Valley altogether.
When that happens, cities will wish they had given more credence to workforce housing, like Tempe is doing.
Economists agree the boom won't last forever, but few think the Valley's housing bubble will burst in catastrophic fashion.
If incomes don't rise as fast as home prices, and Valley homes cost more than $200,000 from here on out, homeownership may be nothing more than a dream for many low- and moderate-income families.
But maybe not in Tempe, if the City Council's evolving housing strategy pays off.
City staffers are ferreting out several ideas to encourage low-income and workforce housing. Once the specifics are ironed out, the council hopes to bundle several approaches into one comprehensive strategy.
This strategy couldn't come at a better time. The city - and, well, pretty much the entire East Valley - is facing out-of-control home prices and an increased number of investors snatching up properties and turning them into rentals.
But Tempe, historically a working-class city, is also dealing with resident concerns that upscale high-rises will gentrify low- to moderate-income neighborhoods surrounding downtown.
The market is not providing affordable housing on its own. Developers recently dropped an affordable-housing component from a proposed multifamily project near Priest Drive and Elliot Road because the federal regulations would have been too onerous.
All the more reason for Tempe to step to the plate.
The city is partnering with non-profit community organizations, such as Chicanos Por La Causa and NewTown, to build affordable homes in city-owned vacant lots.
It hopes to encourage workforce housing along the future light-rail line and is working with a developer to convert an aged strip mall into housing.
Tempe may also make upscale developers pay a fee or offer units within their developments at a lower price.
The ideas aren't that groundbreaking, and the idea of just what is "affordable" remains quite nebulous. Residents need specifics to really embrace this strategy.
But we're glad the council recognizes the need to make Tempe attractive for people of all income levels. Out-priced families are already fleeing to the outskirts, contributing to urban sprawl. But there will come a point when the outskirts are too far from jobs or too expensive to justify the commute, and an important segment of our population will flee the Valley altogether.
When that happens, cities will wish they had given more credence to workforce housing, like Tempe is doing.
