A CROSSROADS FOR OUR COMMUNITIES

Having an affordable, dependable place to call home is a basic need, but it has become a luxury in our region.

Our region’s housing inventory has remained steady, while conversion of that inventory to seasonal housing and short-term rentals has increased at an alarming pace, further limiting housing options for the region’s workforce. Today’s housing market is facing unprecedented high prices, record low inventory, and increasing competition from the seasonal home and vacation rental market. The median home value in Michigan is $214,231. This value is seasonally adjusted and only includes the middle price tier of homes. Michigan home values have gone up 17.4% over the past year. When you look at this same data for Traverse City, for example, the value is closer to $371,000.

This means the average working family needs to earn $116,000/year to afford a modest home of their own. For most of our region’s workforce, this is far out of reach, as the median household income for our 10-county region is $67,570.

This short supply of available housing leaves many families with few choices but to live in deteriorating, inadequate, unsafe, or unaffordable homes. That is, if they stay or move to the region at all.

Because of the enormous gap between the year-round housing available and the average working family’s income, our region’s working families are forced to commute long distances to find a place to call home, often spending more than 50% of their income on housing and transportation.

Despite the documented demand for year-round housing units, private developers have little incentive to provide housing for households with below-average incomes. Responding to demand for high-end and second homes—many of which will become short-term rentals—is more profitable...at least in the short term.