Yesterday, November 14th marked the 2nd annual Lancaster County Housing Summit, held at the Eden Best Western in Manheim Township near Lancaster City. The event ran from 8am to 3pm and featured 3 large-group sessions in the courtyard auditorium & 2 "break out" sessions in the ballrooms. The event's primary focus was on the availability of affordable housing for Lancaster County and approximately 300 housing industry professionals attended. I was one of them. Here's my take on what transpired.
The emcee for the day was Mr. Michael Carper of HDC, a non-profit company in south-central PA that focuses on development and administration of rental projects. He did a very good job of framing the day's focus at the breakfast session, and there was a large contingent of HDC logo'd shirts in the room (under orders to attend?). The speaker at the morning session was Mr. John Bravacos, the new regional director for HUD out of Philly. He came armed with statistics for the county, for example that out of the some 184,000 homes in Lancaster, 29% were rentals as of 2006. One telling statistic was that the median income for the county was $61,000 while the average home price was $172,000 (now even more) - quite a disparity! Mr. Bravacos was a good speaker who offered HUD's resources to projects focusing on developing more affordable home options here in Lancaster County.
Then we had an interesting session featuring the one & only "market rate builder" who showed up - Jeff Rutt of Keystone homes. By the way, I was frankly blown away by the complete absence of recognizable builders! These guys are the ones who will make or break the advance of affordable housing - I sure hope they got invited...the Building Industry Association (BIA) was a sponsor! Come to think of it, there were only 3 or 4 realtors as well! At least 2 were there under different auspices (such as myself, who went as an elected official of East Petersburg Borough). Sort of shocking given the emphasis on new construction and sales of homes...
Anyway, Mr. Rutt was part of a panel that worked a scenario for the audience where Keystone would buy a 50 acre tract for development of 325 homes (a density of 6.5 homes per acre, a number I doubt Keystone has ever come close to - I looked through their developments in Lancaster/York/Chester - no townhomes available, only single families). The other panelists were a land planner and his attorney, who set up "assumptions" that local municipalities would not go along with the development and that they would have to get the ordinances changed...the whole scenario bugged me and I'm sure many others in the room. Thankfully, the last panel member was Mark Stivers of East Hempfield Township, who reasserted the public's right to decide what gets put in their backyard and the due process needed to reinvent the landscape...thanks Mark!
One key concept that came out of that session was that it took nearly $87,000 per parcel to prepare the land to built upon, and that land costs are typically allowed as 25% of the home price, resulting in $350,000 homes - not exactly affordable...this only served to remind me that A) Market Rate Builders need a serious change of profit philosophy, and B) Land costs are a great reason to all the more pursue "adaptive reuse" of urban properties, something builders are loathe to approach.
OK, I attended 2 breakout sessions and one (on the future of financing) was marginal and I was disappointed that there were only "big bank" representatives on the panel up front. A mortgage broker was sorely needed. In my experience big bank loan officers rarely engage the community (individually) and have fairly restricted loan programs to offer. A broker, on the other hand, is a mortgage generalist who is likely a sole practitioner who communicates with the public well. I was glad to see a representative from Tabor Community Services up there. Also, the wonderful Beth Schalk from LHOP was a welcome addition to the panel, with her wealth of knowledge on the consumer homebuying process. I had a great offline talk with Beth on the future of LHOP after the event...
The other breakout I attended to was "Urban Housing Policy: Expanding Choices in the City & Borough". I was excited to hear what the panelists had to say, since Lancaster City, Elizabethtown & Denver were represented. Turns out that the fourth panelist was a lobbyist consultant of some sort who, though I'm sure well-meaning, monopolized much of the hour by standing up front and telling the group about some proposed legislation to fight blighted properties. Despite the able moderation of Dan Whittle of LCPC (one of the most knowledgeable and well-spoken housing advocates in the county) the session was not what I'd hoped for. Mayor Rick Gray as a panelist was great, and his input was appreciated. I sat next to Michael Sprunger of Living Lancaster and we had a good chat afterwards - thanks Michael for your support!
Each breakout session reported back to the whole group with suggestions to drive the housing agenda in the coming year...
The afternoon wound up with a (brief) keynote address from the Director of PHFA, and a very interesting around-the-table session discussing the breakout session recommendations. Some at my table were Mayor Rick Gray, Carlos Graupera of SACA, James Frederick of the East Side Improvement District, Randy Patterson and Carol McCoy from Lancaster City and Rod Hauser representing the "Downtowners" an interesting city living advocacy group. Although the mayor and Carlos had to leave, we settled on a few key action points for 2008:
- Require affordable units in every new housing project
- Advocate with municipalities to adopt more flexible and unique developments and for quicker plan approvals.
- Support the state and national housing trust funds.
One recommendation that did not get any support was "promote energy conservation and consciousness in affordable housing development". Amazing...everyone knows my advocacy for green awareness and this (very knowledgeable) crowd ignored the pressing need here. Maybe next year!
Overall, the effort was a strong one and the sponsors and creators should be commended from bringing the housing community together. Lets see what the Housing Coalition can do in the coming year!
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For Lancaster PA homes for sale click here. Jeff Geoghan is a top real estate expert in Lancaster County, PA, and an involved community member. Jeff's work has been featured in the Lancaster Newspapers, WGAL Channel 8, PA Business Journal and Wall Street Journal. Jeff's blog on Lancaster County and its homes is nationally-featured. Contact Jeff for more help with your Lancaster PA Real Estate needs. Jeff is also a photographer - view some of his portfolio. Comments are welcome!
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Seems to me that $61K income will qualify buyers for homes in the $172,000 price range. Unless the taxes are extremely high, the average income should qualify the average buyer for that average price.
The price for the new construction is something else. The buyers clearly are not going to qualify for homes in the $350K range.
Lancaster could look at Montgomery County MD and their MPDU and HOC programs. They have, over the years, provided housing for many moderate income buyers. Even the luxury home communities, if they build over 50 units must include moderate priced units. It works.
We're faces with the same problems in my area. Home prices that have gotten out of the qualifying range of home buyers. The difference is the scale. We have $120K incomes and $750,000 homes. Doesn't matter. Comers are not buying.