Builders are adding housing in the Spokane market at a pace that keeps up with Spokane’s growing population currently, but not enough to make up for the deficit in inventory created in the first half of the 2010s.

Local elected officials should be mindful of that dynamic and look for ways to increase housing development now to ease affordability and availability issues. Ideally, such actions would provide ways for builders to add housing products at lower price points so fewer people are priced out of the market.

A Spokane Association of Realtors-commissioned study released late last month shows that 28,000 new housing units, or 2,800 a year, need to be added in the Spokane area over the next decade to keep up with population growth, but that still won’t dig us out of the housing-stock deficit that exists now.

Some data suggests that volume of activity not only is attainable but is already being met. Data in the Spokane-Kootenai Real Estate Research Committee’s spring 2021 Real Estate Report shows building permits have been issued for an average of 2,920 residential units a year for the past five years. That includes single-family homes and multifamily units. 

The current problem, arguably, stems from the previous five years—2011 to 2015. During that time, according to Real Estate Report data, an average of 1,860 residential units were permitted in the Spokane area. Before that, during the trough of the Great Recession, the numbers were, predictably, substantially lower than that.

In a previous report, Spokane Realtors estimated Spokane was underbuilt by about 32,000 housing units.

State and local governments must play a part in ensuring the current housing shortage and affordability issues don’t worsen in the coming years. Building codes need to be modernized to allow flexibility in what can be built where. Current single-family zones should be examined for opportunities to provide smaller lots and homes—or put another way, a diversity in housing types in the same neighborhood.

Many point to Kendall Yards as a prime example of urban development, with a broad range of housing types and varied price points in a walkable community with a blend of commercial and residential buildings as part of a broad in-fill development.

However, Kendall Yards developer and Greenstone Homes founder Jim Frank has pointed out, the planned-unit development guidelines under which that development was approved are no longer in place in the city. Clearly, regulations need to be reviewed with the current market dynamics in mind.

Spokane champions its quality of life as an asset to attract professionals and recruit businesses—and rightfully so. Affordable housing is an important component of that quality of life we value, and skyrocketing rents—up 31% year over year, according to Apartment List—and escalating average home prices—up 26.5%, according to Spokane Realtors—make it harder for more and more people to thrive here.

Now is the time for elected officials to act, before we lose completely one of the attributes that makes us attractive to people looking to move here.

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