Members of the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Central Ohio met recently with a variety of local officials to discuss the growing need for housing in the area.
Jon Melchi, executive director of the BIA, presented a recently completed housing need assessment.
According to the study, Central Ohio will need to add more than 14,000 housing units per year to accommodate an estimated 500,000 new jobs and 1 million new residents by 2050. Currently, about 8,000 housing units are being built annually in the region.
“It doesn’t take long to figure out that, yes, we are doing fine, but we aren’t building nearly the amount of homes or variety of homes we need,” said Melchi.
Marysville City Manager Terry Emery stressed that “The housing need in the region is expected to be crazy busy in the next 20 to 30 years.”
Building officials said they believe that Union County will continue to grow faster than the regional average meaning a larger portion of the homes will be needed.
Melchi explained that the housing gap and its impact on affordability are not unique to Union County. The report concludes that, while the problem is certainly greater in some places, across Central Ohio the increases in home prices and rental rates have far outpaced income growth within all geographic areas of study.
“Our incomes are not keeping up with the cost of housing and the cost of renting,” Melchi said.
The report examines permitting activity in what it terms as “peer markets” of Charlotte, Nashville and Austin. The study revealed homes and apartments are being built at a much faster rate in those regions.
Melchi said there are five L’S that drive home costs — land, labor, lumber, lending and local government. He said some of these — lending and lumber — are national issues. He said there is also a national labor shortage. He said labor costs can also be a local issue. He said land and local government costs are driven by the community.
Melchi said local restrictions add cost to a home without adding value. He said suburban central Ohio communities require much lower density than many other communities. He called Central Ohio “the side yard capital of the world.”
Jim Lipnis, of Homewood Corp., explained that the further away from Columbus, communities want fewer homes on each acre of land. He said that, depending on land prices, he needs to be able to average a certain number of homes on each acre. He said if local rules require only low density housing, “I can’t get the numbers to work. I can’t do it.”
Union County Economic Development Director Eric Phillips, who helped organize the meeting, said the housing shortage will have economic ramifications.
“If we do not meet the housing need, we will not have the work force of tomorrow,” Phillips said.
He said companies will not consider locating in a community if there is no workforce or place for employees to work.
“Our lack of ability to house new workers is going to hurt us economically,” Melchi said.
Phillips said that if Columbus had been able to attract the much talked about second Amazon headquarters, “we wouldn’t have had the housing.”
Melchi explained that housing and job creation are tied together. He said that from 1991 to 2017, there were 276,169 building permits issued in the Columbus region and 276,221 jobs added to the region.
Melchi said the key to creating a diverse community is providing a diverse option of housing.
He explained that if a community wants to keep its members, it must provide housing for a lifetime — from young renters, to first home, to options for an expanding family, to empty nesters. He said there must also be housing for a variety of income levels.
Melchi said the region has done “an OK job” meeting subsidized housing and high-end housing.
“Where we have fallen short is in the demand of the middle class,” Melchi said.
He also said that between 1997 and 2015 there were no multi-family communities built in Union County. He said many communities believe that apartment complexes create traffic problems and overwhelm schools.
He said that in most cases, that isn’t true. Melchi explained that many people who rent have non-traditional schedules. He said they don’t add to rush hour traffic because they are often leaving and returning home at different hours than the 9 to 5 homeowners. He also explained that most apartment dwellers are either single, young married couples or empty nesters.
Melchi said that builders and developers want to build homes for the coming population, but they need local governments to help by allowing multi-family complexes, easing density restrictions and streamlining the approval process.
Laura MacGregor Comek, an attorney for several development companies, said local governments and developers need to find creative ways to work together. She said there are ways to finance growth and infrastructure and to create products that buyers want and can afford, but
“If you want the job growth, you are going to have to help us with the problem,” said Bart Bartok, with Nationwide Realty.