EVERETT — In a recent presentation to the City Council, affordable housing expert Chris Collier highlighted the growing problem of high home prices in the county, where the average home now costs around $822,000. This sharp increase in prices has made it more difficult for many people to afford their own homes. One key reason for this, Collier explained, is the lack of available homes.
“There’s fewer single-family homes in Everett over the last decade than ‘pick a year, pick a decade,’” Collier said.
One factor to watch in relation to housing is the local increase in minimum wage set for July of this year. Voters approved raising the minimum wage in Everett to $20 an hour for employees at large companies. According to Collier, this wage increase could make housing even more difficult to attain, as people with more money to spend could drive up prices in an already competitive market.
Skylar Clary, a former spokesperson for Everett Deserves a Raise offered a different outlook.
“We are confident that there will be people who can afford rent now (after the minimum wage hike), who could not afford rent before their wages went up. Market rate rents are set by complex algorithms that are designed to charge the highest possible rate. The average wage at Microsoft or Boeing has much more impact on rents in Snohomish County. Minimum wage workers are such a small percentage of renters that their wage doesn’t go into the equation,” Clary said.
The shortage of homes is making it more difficult for people to find affordable housing. While some surpluses exist due to high prices and “sticker shock,” which are preventing people from moving to the state and area, the overall supply remains low.
Despite this, there has been growth in the construction of condominiums and mid-density housing as alternatives for potential buyers. However, Collier emphasized that the situation is further exacerbated by the growing gap between home prices and household incomes. To afford the average home, a household would need to earn about $194,000 a year. The median household income in the county, however, has stayed around $192,000, meaning many families are financially stretched. For those who cannot afford to buy homes, renting is becoming the only option. Rent prices have surged by 71%, as more people are forced into the rental market. Collier attributes this rent increase to the high cost of buying a home.
“All prices are set to resume rising in 2025. Indications are clear that we’ve worked through any kind of surplus housing, and rental or owner housing stock rents are going to rise,” Collier said.
On top of the high home prices, interest rates on mortgages have increased to 6.8%, making homeownership even more challenging. Collier predicts that rent prices will continue to climb over the next year as more people are pushed into renting.
Despite these challenges, Collier sees a potential solution in larger multi-family housing developments.
“It’s easier to manage... at scale, it’s easier to manage 100 units because if you go from 90 units to 100, or 100 to 110, it’s not that much extra work for property management,” he explained.
He believes that the efficiency of managing larger buildings could make multi-family housing a more attractive option for both developers and renters.
After Collier’s presentation, Council Member Paula Rhyne urged her fellow council members to take action.
“I would call on my colleagues to make sure that this isn’t just a briefing where we hear things, but that we act on it as well. I would encourage that we take this information to our committee that works on housing, so it could inform that committee’s goals and initiatives,” Rhyne said.
One proposed solution from council member Scott Bader at the meeting was to encourage the construction of more units, alternate dwelling units (ADUs) and buildings on vacant lots to alleviate the inventory shortage driving up housing costs. Collier responded with:“Its a multi-part answer it takes more people answering it than just me it’s taking a builder and saying why aren’t you buying this? Why aren’t you building? Maybe the seller isn’t willing, maybe they’re calculating on the price of land the value of land, and just holding on to because it’s worth paying the property tax on a vacant parcel,” said Collier, who then gave an example of some vacant lots that became issues near Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood that the seller refused to sell.
Another explanation given from Collier to the lack of development on vacant lots is the state of small builders.
Collier pointed out that the landscape of builders has shifted since the recession.
“It (the lack of builders willing to develop vacant parcels) can also be attributed to the fact that the recession wiped out a lot of small builders. I don’t think the builders are lacking work—they’re not sitting around saying, ‘Oh, gosh, I wish someone would tell me about a property that’s available for redevelopment.’ The impact of the recession is something we still live with today. What do we do about that? It might be outside the scope of the city, but how do we attract more construction firms to take on that work if everything seems right, but no one is taking the opportunity?” Collier said.
Although the presentation was before the Everett City Council, Collier reiterated that solving the issue of housing affordability will require collaboration at the county level as well.
