Jill Avery-Stoss, Chief Operating Officer at The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development.
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WILKES-BARRE — Jill Avery-Stoss, chief operating officer at The Institute for Public Policy and Economic Development, this week said the low cost of living has long been Northeastern Pennsylvania’s strongest competitive advantage — particularly in terms of worker and business attraction.
“In this context the housing market disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic takes on newfound importance,” Avery-Stoss said. “With housing construction significantly slowed and more people moving into the region, upward pressure was put on home prices.”
The organization’s Housing Task Force recently released an action-focused study with recommendations for meeting housing demand.
Considering housing prices and rental costs in terms of wages for the area’s largest industries, affordability is a clear challenge. Avery-Stoss said homeowners tend to have higher incomes than the population overall, so comparing the income for homeowners as a class to housing prices only demonstrates affordability for higher income individuals.
Avery-Stoss said people who receive lower incomes are either unable to afford rent or sit directly at the affordability threshold. In fact, home-ownership is out of reach for people working in 16 of the area’s top 25 occupations.
“Exploring changes in the housing stock through the lens of filtering is also worrying,” Avery-Stoss added. “Filtering is the process through which expensive homes become more affordable by losing value, thus entering the middle housing market — however, it is only effective if there are enough homes for higher income individuals to occupy.”
Throughout the broader region the number of homes for-sale has been declining, even before the population boom. Avery-Stoss said without new construction the filtering process cannot work.
One solution involves increasing the supply of middle-income housing. Land use reform could make a significant difference. Several types of middle housing are illegal in many areas because there are strict single-family zoning rules.
Therefore, to get the housing needed cities should revise zoning laws to enable more high-density housing.
In addition to zoning reforms, building codes and other regulations can be simplified to help small developers enter the market. With more competition in housing there would be greater downward pressure on rents and home prices that could help maintain affordable housing in the region.
Land trusts and more land banking activity could be productive as well, and these efforts are underway. By clearing back taxes and getting abandoned properties on the market, Avery-Stoss said land banks facilitate rehabilitation and tackle blight. Land trusts are community organizations, usually nonprofits, that own land and either rent out or sell the housing on the land.
“By maintaining ownership of the land, the land trust can afford to sell homes at lower price points, opening home ownership to people with lower incomes,” Avery-Stoss said. “The land trust owning the land also ensures that the priority with the land is housing, rather than speculation.”
Such organizations are self-funded through rent and property sales. Avery-Stoss said they do require startup capital, which could be secured through federal grants such as recovery funds.
“Unlike the land bank that only holds the properties, these organizations can engage in the rehabilitation of blighted properties or adaptive reuse by themselves, so they would not be reliant on private developers making potentially risky investments,” Avery-Stoss said.
Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.