The employment wave is coming, bringing with it a population increase that will not only boost to the local economy, but have a major impact on the housing market.

“You’ve got the wave coming to hit you in less than six months and it’s time to get moving and time to get doing something,” Executive Director of the Wyoming Community Development Authority David Haney said at the Housing Forum on Thursday night. “Do you sit back and just react to it or do you try to be proactive and do something about?”

But with a number of difficulties facing the Goshen County community, he said, it’s important to take baby steps.

A diverse array of community members, from landlords and developers to area renters, attended the forum to voice their concerns and listen to area experts discuss the state of the Goshen County economy and housing market.

The average monthly cost to rent an apartment in Goshen County is $473, according to the Wyoming Housing Database Partnership. That number rises to $481 per month to rent a house and drops to $383 per month to rent a mobile home.

Goshen County has a total of nearly 6,000 housing units. According a 2006 Housing Needs Assessment, for the first half of 2006 there were only 18 vacant rental units out of a total of 371. In the same time period there were a total of 68 for-sale listings on the multiple listing service for the county.

In 2007, 13 construction permits were approved for single-family dwellings and the Torrington City Council approved a new 18-unit building permit last month.

“The trend is upward,” Executive Director of the Goshen County Economic Development Corporation Lisa Johnson said. “Goshen County ranks as one of the most affordable places to live in Wyoming, and it’s a leader in Wyoming economics cost of living report.”

However, there are still a number of concerns including rising housing prices with the increase in population, poor condition of current rentals, low wages and lack of affordable housing for those on the lower end of the pay scale.

“While there are a number of housing developments (in Goshen County) in various stages, the majority of lots will be suitable for the higher end of the market,” the assessment said. “Only a small percentage of lots are priced in the affordable range based on the median household income of Goshen County and starting wages of projected employment growth.”

Johnson explained that while there are a number of benefits to job growth, it’s also important to consider the other impacts as well.

One major issue is the risk of developing multifamily housing units in rural communities.

Local trends have a lot of fluctuation, not only making it difficult to find investors, but also to find willing lenders.

One way to ease the risk is to look at subsidizing rentals.

“It’s a very interesting game that we play in terms of those federal resources when it comes to these projects,” Haney said. “There have been a record number of applications which means you have to compete.”

He explained that while there are a number of different ways to subsidize a project, it’s still a challenge because it’s difficult to determine market rent and demand.

Loraine Werner of the USDA Rural Development also stressed the challenges of subsidizing.

“Grant money is limited, the government is broke,” she said. “Funding is based on population and Wyoming’s population is low.”

However, both Rural Development and the Wyoming Community Development Authority boast a number of programs to help development in small communities and expressed a tremendous desire to help in Goshen County.

“We live in your community. We have people that live all over,” Werner said. “We want to help you in whatever needs you might have.”

Rural Development also provides assistance on an individual basis to help low-income people and families afford rent.

Torrington Mayor Leroy Schafer expressed some concerns on the city level with regard to development.

“Rental prices are almost more than some of our people in the town of Torrington can afford,” he said. “We’ve tried to keep the utilities affordable and by doing so there is no money available for infrastructure repair when things get to be 30, 40, 50 years old.”

He explained that the city is trying to get each of the city utilities to become self sustaining; however, the majority have been relying heavily on income from the Electrical Department.

“When you think about infrastructure costs it’s going to be difficult to look to the city for help with those costs,” Schafer said. This includes getting infrastructure to new developments.

“There are a lot of issues that we are behind the time in and it’s not only affecting the costs of infrastructure but it’s also affecting the costs of insurance,” he said. “Things will probably get a lot more detailed and costly over the next five years which will only add to the problem that we have currently.”

This initial housing forum is only the first step.

The next steps, according to ideas from the crowd, is to get current housing information available including statistics from across the Nebraska border, look at federal government options for assistance and build on the Goshen County Housing Task Force.

“Rental housing is going to take the first brunt of whatever changes are going to happen,” Haney said. “The economic effects are very real.

“We know it’s coming - how are we going to deal with it?”

For the complete article see the 05-22-2009 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 05-22-2009 paper.

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