The Macon County Economic Development commission heard from regional experts regarding a question on many employers’ minds on Thursday night.
What can be done about workforce housing in Western North Carolina?
Russ Harris and Caroline LaFrenier, from the Southwestern Commission, made a presentation focused on the current housing market and population trends of the region and Macon County specifically.
“Over the past 20 years as a region we have seen a 16 percent population increase and over the next 30 years that growth is projected to be approximately 26 percent,” Harris said. “While a growing population is good, much better than having a dwindling population, it does come with some significant challenges.”
Harris noted that the average home price in Macon County was $314,000 in 2019, and that number continues to rise.
“Housing costs are going up at an alarming rate regionally and Macon County is no exception,” Harris said. “The Highlands market is significantly more expensive than the county average, which skews the county’s numbers, and right now that market shows no sign of slowing down.”
Harris noted that the long-term rental market in Macon County isn’t much more promising with an average rental price for a two-bedroom apartment at $779 per month. Based on the average wages of working class families in Western North Carolina, those families can only afford to pay $569 per month before they are considered “housing burdened,” meaning housing is taking up a disproportionate amount of their monthly income.
Harris and LaFrenier offered two potential solutions to ease the housing crunch.
The first is what development planners call “infill development,” which focuses on building multi-family structures in areas where infrastructure is already in place to support those large buildings. Areas that already have access to municipal water, sewer and reliable internet service are particularly attractive for infill development.
“Some of the issues with infill development is it does increase the population density in a particular area and it can be hard to find large tracts of land that fit those criteria and are suitable for building,” Harris said. “It’s an option that works best in some of the larger municipalities.”
The second option to add workforce housing is to use federal low incomes housing tax credits to lure developers to build multi-family structures. The tax credits incentivize the infrastructure improvements and construction, and assure that the rental rates are kept at a regionally acceptable level.
Macon County EDC director Tommy Jenkins pointed to the Indigo housing complex on Siler Road in Franklin as one example of multi-family units that were built using tax credits.
LaFrenier noted that no matter how affordable workforce housing is built, it will take cooperation from multiple levels of government to make it happen. That is why the Southwestern Commission recently created the Southwestern NC Home Consortium to bring government bodies together in the name of addressing workforce housing issues.
“The consortium will cover the seven westernmost North Carolina counties and there will be a representative from each county on the board,” LaFrenier said. “Working together to get the federal and state tax credits available is going to be critical as we move forward.”
LaFrenier added that the consortium will receive $542,373 per year through 2030 to use in its mission of helping to alleviate the workforce housing issue in the seven county region.