JUNE NIBJ: Barta col: Housing affordability and tariffs in real estate
Raphael Barta
North Idaho and the Spokane area are generally insulated from national disaster trends: floods, earthquakes, tornados, persistent wildfire outbreaks, etc. The region has continued to be a place people want to move to: population growth has been strong over the past decade, and still it remains a really nice place to live.
There are certain challenges however, to sustain smart growth and the lifestyle, one of which is housing affordability. Not having a sufficient supply of workforce housing that the median household income can support is changing the demographic make-up of our communities: North Idaho is statistically significant in the 60+ age retirees group. These folks are not active participants in the job market, and a thin labor pool will eventually blunt economic growth. A shortage of skilled younger workers affects large scale investment like manufacturing facilities, but also small businesses too, like local restaurants. The housing issue affects both the urban and rural areas. It’s an issue that has been forming over many years, with roots based in the economic calamity of 2008, and it’s an issue that has national factors as well as local forces shaping it.
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