On the Road With Denise
It is important for everyone in real estate right now – whether you are an agent, a managing broker, an owner, title, mortgage – to be vigilant around anything you get in your inbox on the subject of building better homes.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's Zebra Report. This week, as you can tell, I am not in my normal office. I am in Denver, Colorado for the National Association of Home Builders leadership conference. I am on the Legislative Affairs Committee and the 55+ Housing Committee, plus I'm on the Washington State Legislative Affairs Committee.
I want to talk about some of the things we are covering in our meetings here in Denver, specifically about housing affordability. It is so critically important for everyone in real estate right now - whether you are an agent, a managing broker, an owner, title, mortgage - to be vigilant around anything you get in your inbox on the subject of building better homes. That doesn't just mean better quality, but more attainable for more buyers.
As I've mentioned in a previous Zebra Report, there's no longer such a thing as affordable housing out there on the market for many people. Not in our State of Washington and not in many parts of the United States. One of the things that is causing this incredibly difficult position for many buyers is that it just costs too much money to get a home built.
In Washington State the amount can be as much as $93,000 in additional cost per home just to cover all of the regulation, permitting, planning, and delays that come with building a new home.
One of the things that I am super excited about is a committee that I am going to be leading to create a universal permit and planning process, to help streamline these costly parts of home building in Washington State. This already exists in other housing markets, but we don't have it here yet. It's really about the planning and permitting process being a more transparent state-wide function that can be easily seen on a dashboard. This visibility is needed because every day that a developer or builder is delayed costs money, and that cost is passed on to the home buyer.
The other thing that we are thinking about has to do with a question I hear a lot, "Denise, why is there so much more homelessness these days? Why has it increased so much?"
It is because of Economic Homelessness. There are people that are homeless right now not because they cannot afford to buy homes, not because of addiction or some other tragedy that has led them to ending up on the streets. There are areas abroad in Canada, Australia, Europe and other parts of the world where this problem has been solved. There are solutions.
I'll give you an example and this is just one part of a solution. Many areas in Washington State don't have it in their code to allow for modular housing. Modular housing is factory-built component housing. Component housing is going to be key in our future housing market being able to provide more affordable and attainable housing product. My prediction is that we can build an affordable and beautiful housing product that utilizes component housing so that we can save on time and weather delays - important factors here in Washington State.
So yes, I have been doing a lot of traveling, and I'll have more to share once I am back. I feel that this is an important responsibility to try and make things better for our future home buyers. I encourage you to get involved too, because the decisions being made, the future of how homes are built, it directly impacts you and how you help your buyers and sellers.
So, if you get something in your inbox about affordable housing or housing policy, take a moment to read it. Take a moment if you can to get involved!
By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M.
The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.