Housing Ruminations Late 2022

Click on the chart above to see more about cost burdened households.

Housing Comments - In September, I did a deep dive into housing issues and linked to several reports on housing. I just reread it and found I had stated this, "Growing forever is not an option in a finite world." Golden has finite land mass, finite water resources, and since we're pretty much built out, a finite road network too. So what are we to do? When we passed the comprehensive plan update in 2017 to include a goal of 45% affordable housing it was not too far off what existed at the time, but it is now. The city (which I use to mean citizens and city council) recognized at the time that this was a stretch goal, but it was predicated on a number of ideals, one of which is quoted here:

"A diverse housing stock that is accessible and affordable to a variety of households is essential to a sustainable and equitable community. Everyone benefits when current and future residents are able to thrive in a welcoming community with access to good schools, affordable homes, a robust economy, healthy social and recreational opportunities as well as a regional transportation network. Preserving a range of housing choices enables residents to remain in Golden, maintaining their connections with and contributions to their neighborhood and larger community. Golden is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive, economically vital and environmentally sustainable community by ensuring a diversity of housing choices that enable its residents to thrive through all of life’s stages."

I personally truly believe this, and am more concerned about our town remaining a viable place to live for people across the income spectrum, than I am of Golden losing its character. After all, what is the character of Golden? That is for each person to decide. But in many emails and conversations I've heard common recurring themes, our character is to honor our pioneer past, to honor our manufacturing and industrial roots, to honor our ongoing relationship with a world class research institution, a gateway to the mountains and recreation, an amazing place to recreate, grow and thrive, be educated etc. It is a lot of things to a lot of people which is the definition of diversity!

One proposed solution is to take pressure off our housing market is by having Colorado School of Mines build more housing. And to their credit, CSM is working to house all freshman and sophomore students on campus. But I find that in the last 11 years or so, the undergraduate population has increased by 69%, (3,786 in 2010 to 5,418 in 2022). That doesn't include graduate students which is now just over 1,800 students. So housing two of the four undergraduate classes may hold the line, but it really keeps us where we were just a decade ago and the pressure for housing has only increased.

Why do people buy a home in Golden only to turn around and rent it to students, instead of living in it? Because the economics work out to do so. My neighbor bought the adjacent property to hers for about $650K a few years ago. It has been a student rental for years and she was tired of the noise, cars, etc. She had hoped to rent it to a professional, couple, or other non-student renters. But the economics just didn't work out. Four students each paying $800 per room gets a landlord $3200/month, which is enough to cover a 3.5% loan and utilities. But it would take two wage earners making over $60K/year to make enough to pay that rent. That is comparable to two managers of a restaurant or store, but not an hourly worker. And just to be clear, this mid-level renter is not building equity in this scenario, they are just paying rent. Long term renters by the way are awesome people too, they put down roots and are part of our community and help build its character. I don't think the same is true of transient students. Of course many students put down roots here too. My point is that long term renters are part of our character, not just homeowners.

So where are we? CSM has not yet built student housing fast enough to house half of its students, and has grown so much that there is still huge pressure on the housing market. The prices of homes are so high that as an investment the only way to make it work is to either be very high salaried, or to rent to those who can afford it, such as students who split the costs amongst themselves. Smaller, dated homes are being torn down because the building industry requires larger square foot homes to spread the one time costs over more square feet (amortize the costs), and some of the smaller homes, while nice enough back-in-the-day, do not meet peoples' wants (or needs). Click on the chart to see the recommended annual building for the next 10 years from the Housing Needs Assessment.

Finally, you'll note that there is pressure on our housing even if we do "nothing". Which is to say that whether we take the recommendations of the recent Housing Needs Assessment and toss out all the housing for new workers, we still need to build 75 units, to meet the ongoing needs. (See the chart above) I believe housing need is made up mostly of two bedroom condos or townhouses for seniors to age in place, or new families to start out, that are missing in our housing stock. And where can these be built? Great question! Hopefully ALL over the place, not just In Your Back Yard.

Also, there is a meme going around town that seniors are not seen as valued and should move out of their homes to make room for working families. This came from comments made at a study session of the city couuncil. You can form your own opinion by watching the study session from August 16th here. My takeaway was a little different. And I believe that starter homes are the real need in town. Even for the 5% or so of our working population that lives in town, housing is unaffordable. Look at the number of people burdened by their housing costs, for some it is really dire as our food pantries can attest. Starter homes could allow seniors to more readily age in place with one level living, condo fees and support, and fewer maintenance issues. Likewise young families can start on their path to building home equity. Seniors shouldn't HAVE to move to make room for working families. But even seniors who WANT to move find few if any options to do so.

So, another finally...Golden has limited resources, cannot grow forever, and if it does nothing STILL has unsustainable pressures that impact the quality of life for the current residents. It is completely unreasonable to just bar the door as many of our current residents are rent/cost burdened and their quality of life is impacted. So yes to more CSM housing, and yes to more housing that fits our character. In my opinion doing nothing is a dereliction in duty, and it doesn't help keep Golden awesome.

These comments are my own, not to be construed or imply that I speak for the rest of the city council. Contact me personally if you want to discuss this further.

Golden United hosted a discussion on the Housing Needs Assessment on October 27th. Please watch it and read the support materials to see how other's interpreted and understood the results. A diversity of views is definitely out there!