Renting Remains Viable Housing Choice
by Broderick Perkins
The National Multi Housing Council says public policy has tipped the balance of power in housing policy too far to the side of owned housing at the expense of much needed rental housing which, in some markets, is often the only choice for shelter. At times, renting also can be a better choice. For example, in California, the nation's most populous state, the median price of single family homes is a half million dollars and in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County, CA), home to more than 1.5 million residents, the median price for single-family homes is about to eclipse the three-quarter million dollar mark. Where people can't afford to buy a home, renting is the only alternative, provided there is enough affordable rental housing to go around. "In 2004, however, a rash of election-year inspired homeownership rhetoric and proposals forced us to 'take off the gloves' and question the Administration's 'homeownership above all else and at any cost' approach to housing policy," says the council in its 2004 Annual Report, "A Return To What Works: Higher Density Highly Desired." The council says there are growing indicators that the home ownership envelope has been pushed too far. - FHA foreclosures reached record levels in 2004, and more than double the historical average for the past 21 years. Foreclosures of conventional loans in 2004 were near record levels.
- Home price foreclosures in North Carolina tripled in the past five years.
- Monroe County, PA's Pocono Mountains area now auctions nearly 100 homes a month because of foreclosures, up from a handful in the 1980s.
- In Indianapolis, there were 5,500 foreclosures in 2002, compared to 1,000 a year in the mid 1990s.
- In February 2004, Philadelphia officials temporarily suspended auctions of foreclosed homes after a record 1,120 homes were put up on the block in one week.
- The only group whose housing conditions worsened between 1999 and 2001 were low-and moderate-income owners, not renters.
Fraud gets some of the blame for an increase in foreclosures in some areas. The same fast-appreciating home prices that have increased public policy and eased underwriting to help buyers cope, have also attracted an underworld of organized crime, including collusion by industry insiders looking to cash in on a pumped up market. "With every foreclosure, there is a family who is worse off as a result of our nation's aggressive homeownership policies. In addition to losing their house and their investment, these families also damage their credit rating, which makes it more difficult for them to buy, or even rent another dwelling, the report says. Advocating a more balanced housing policy, the council extols the often overlooked virtues of higher density housing, which often includes apartments or other rental homes. The density typically required in apartment housing: - Attracts diverse populations by offering a variety of housing types.
- Reduces traffic congestion and the strain on the infrastructure and the environment by reducing commute times, the amount of land developed and auto-generated pollution.
- Relieves pressure on local school systems because apartments attract more households with few or no children.
- Helps add vitality to marginal neighborhoods.
- Enhances economic competitiveness by offering sufficient housing for a stable work force -- and by extension, the businesses that employ them.
Critics of the study in high housing cost areas would argue, however, that more affordable housing to buy would help reduce the cost of buying and owning homes. And some regions, including the West, may be over supplied with rental housing, if only temporarily, as the region continues to claw its way back from the last downturn. Rents in many regions remain bogged down and vacancy rates are higher than investors would like. "In most locations (in the West), rent increases are barely keeping up with the rate of inflation. Although year over year rents have fallen by more than one percent only in Kansas City and Oklahoma City, during the last quarter Boise, ID, Colorado Springs and Denver, CO; Portland, Salt Lake City, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area revealed rent declines," said Caroline S. Latham, CEO of RealFacts a Novato, CA-based rental market monitor. |
