For subscribers: Scottsdale's housing affordability could mean a loss of police and firefighters, and impact wealthy and poor residents alike, a recent study shows.
, and used estimated median salaries in the metro area to gauge affordability.
The situation appears to be deteriorating at a rapid pace. Just two years ago rentals were affordable for most of the workers in the analysis, but their estimated earnings for 2021 and 2022 suggest they've been consistently priced out each year since then. But even if all of the information becomes available, it’s unclear whether officials will take action, especially given that development hasAn Arizona Multihousing Association lobbyist pushed City Council members to abandon certain development restrictions in Old Town last August, for example. — something he repeated in his closing statements Wednesday.
Councilmember Kathy Littlefield took an even stronger stance on Wednesday, saying the idea of boosting Scottsdale's apartment stock would be a violation of the city's General Plan and lead to a"decreased standard of living" for current residents. The analysis shows middle-income housing is seriously lacking throughout the region and buying homes is out of reach for essential workers in all 11 cities, Scottsdale tops the charts, even in such an unaffordable area:
Rent spikes represent the most staggering change in Scottsdale’s housing market, and the rapid pace of the skyrocketing suggests the situation might be spinning out of control. Similar situations have already played out in cities across Arizona and create obvious risks where the problem is left to fester. In Tucson, for example, below-market pay at the 911 call center was partly to blame for a shortage in operators, which caused“Our police chief has told us we have 50 open positions that he’s struggling to fill,” Caputi said. “We are competing for employees with towns like Gilbert, where people can , live in the city they work and not have to commute an hour each way.
“Lack of sales tax revenue means less services and amenities for our current residents, or higher taxes,” Caputi said. “Scottsdale residents need to weigh if they are happy with less service, with closed coffee shops and long waits at restaurants. What are we willing to trade for a smaller population?”One effort Scottsdale has undertaken to get its local workforce housed is the.
Both of those solutions involve ramping-up development, which experts said Scottsdale is better positioned to accomplish than some other nearby cities because it has “room to grow.” "We have in our pipeline units. This says that we are not only overbuilding, according to what desires are, but we are building the wrong things — apartments instead of family homes," she said. "I fail to see why our current citizens should endure a decrease in their standard of living that was designed together through our various general plans over the years and our zoning laws.
The planning document lists about 3,100 units as “under construction,” which implies they will soon be added to the housing stock to help address the shortage. But about 900 are already built and on the market, so they can't do anything more to balance the supply-demand issue. “The rest of them are all just planned. Those are just working through the zoning process the design process,” Court explained. “Just because they're in the pipeline doesn't mean that they are going to be coming online any time soon. They could take years.”Scottsdale doesn’t know how many housing units it actually needs, according to Bestgen who said the city is working with an outside contractor to get those answers later this month when a new study is expected to be finished.
But because most council members are not crazy about new development, Janik’s proposal to “pause” new projects as a water conservation measure could be the more popular approach for officials who have also expressed a long list of other reasons they want to slow development. City staffers, in an email to The Republic, wrote that apartments represented 16% of the city’s water usage in 2021, while standalone houses represented about 50%.
“The economy as a whole always seems to overshoot a balanced market — too much inventory in the Great Recession and now too little in the go-go market,” Janik said. “Right now, the economy is turning around and I believe the picture should be improved within the year. Prices are expected to moderate and availability increase. I'd like to round out the extremes.”
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