Washington is House Poor
Here's some scary figures from George Mason University's Stephen Fuller - the Washington region's job growth is outstripping the housing supply, and it ain't even close.
Says this TimesCommunity.com report: "The region is adding jobs nearly twice as fast as it can build homes to house the workers. Fuller said 50,000 new houses would be needed this year based on job growth projections, but that only 28,000 homes would get built."
Fuller was talking to some Northern Virginia business types about the impact of federal procurement in D.C. region, which was more than $50 billion last year - 18 percent higher than the year before.
Adding to the mix is the potential shift of thousands of federal workers to the suburbs as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's proposals. (Two hearings on the proposals are planned tomorrow, at the Sheraton in Arlington and the Canon building in D.C.)
More than 300,000 workers already commute daily from outside D.C., says the paper. If the BRAC proposal goes forward and 18,000 workers are moved from D.C. and inner suburbs out to Fort Belvoir, that 'will put even more pressure on the Interstate 95 corridor, "which is already a parking lot."'
posted by Anonymous @ 7:52 AM
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4 Comments:
Candidate Greg Werkheiser has been focusing on this issue, as it affects the 42nd district.
Yup. No houses. Guess we need more proffers, and maybe some impact fees, and a few more govt regulations....
Many of those who will work at Fort Belvoir already live south of the city. Won't this move relieve pressure on the 95 corridor - at least between Fort Belvoir and Center city?
When I built my house in Alexandria, it took almost two years to get a building permit - for a lot with water and sewer already available!
The house has a geothermal ground source heat pump. The county wanted to be present when the wells were backfilled, an i notified them 24 hours ahead when the crew would arrive. There I sat with a half million dollars worth of rented equipment and a crew of six - and the county didn't show.
It is not bad enough that they don't want houses, they have to be deliberately unhelpful and incompetent to boot. They "lost" my drawings four times. They rejected outright the soils report from my professional engineer, and required a special built foundation for poor soils when it clearly wasn't needed. You can be sure that every time something like that happens, it gets added to the bill.
Then we wonder why there is a shortage of housing, let alone affordable housing.
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