The tone of the West Plains Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Dec. 19 was decidedly uneasy as a panel of local experts discussed the state of housing in the West Plains. The message was simple: there aren’t enough houses. At least not yet.
“We’re in a scary situation as far as housing is concerned, and we may not be able to meet this new demand,” said Joel White, an executive officer at Spokane Home Builder’s Association (SHBA). “This growth is not what we’re going to have to see going forward.”
The looming housing shortage was thrown into sharp relief by a population forecast by the SHBA anticipating that Cheney will have a population of almost 15,000 people within 20 years. The same goes for Airway Heights, while Medical Lake is predicted to expand to 6,000.
And that data is from 2016, before Amazon and other large businesses moved into the area and prompted a swell in development and employment. Now, the same growth that was predicted to happen in 20 years could happen in two.
Many cities in the area are grappling with increased demand, including Airway Heights, which has a rental vacancy rate of just 0.5 percent. The county’s rate is much higher, at about 4 percent.
Airway Heights City Manager and panelist Albert Tripp said some of this is due to gentrification — while Airway Heights has traditionally been known for its affordability, rents are outpacing wages and increasing the demand for multifamily homes. However, the city only has one or two parcels of land left that’s zoned for multifamily development.
“Prices are rising, and that makes affordability a concern,” Tripp said.
Like Airway Heights, Cheney is also focusing on multifamily housing. The city used to be majority single-family homes, but now 56 percent of the housing within city limits is multifamily. The increased population could cause water issues and poor traffic patterns, Cheney Mayor Chris Grover said.
Local real estate agent Chelsea McFarland noted that there are about 132 homes for sale in the West Plains under $500,000. For a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home under $300,000, the pickings are much slimmer — only about 30 homes.
“The average price of a single family home in 2017 was about $230,000,” McFarland said. “In 2018 it’s $259,000.”
That increase may be enough to price many young families out of single-family housing. McFarland recommended first-time home buying classes and state assistance programs to address the issue, while city officials suggested that smaller homes in denser developments might be the answer.
“We may need to revisit the traditional definition of what housing looks like and rezone accordingly,” Tripp said.
Several developers on the panel took issue with the county’s Urban Growth Area (UGA), claiming that it makes development difficult and expensive and calling for its expansion.
But building outside of the UGA can complicate access to vital services like fire and police and can lead to increased taxes as infrastructure and transportation try to keep up. Opponents of the UGA also cite environmental concerns, making its expansion a thorny, bureaucratic process.
Cheney School District Superintendent Rob Roettger also reminded chamber members that with the increased need for housing comes an increased need for schools and bonds to pay for them.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
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