Amid rising rents and home prices, new framework emphasizes regional approach to housing challenges

The Partnership for Housing Affordability highlighted those and other data points Wednesday as it released a new regional housing framework aimed at helping localities plan to meet the housing needs of the next two decades. Developed over the past 20 months, the framework paints a daunting picture of the region’s overarching housing challenges, like rising prices and a growing senior population, and outlines recommendations for how to begin addressing them before they become insurmountable. The report draws on feedback from more than 1,900 people.

Over the next 20 years, 1,000 new affordable units must be built each year in order to meet the projected demand by 2040. Over the past five years, about 240 such units have been built in the region annually.

“It’s clear the supply needs to increase,” said Jovan Burton, program director for the partnership, which is led by a 17-person board of directors that includes representatives from regional governments and businesses.

Among the recommendations in the framework are promoting the construction of new rental units reserved for families earning less than the region’s median income of $86,400, as well as incentivizing the preservation of existing ones; zoning neighborhoods with the best access to jobs, education and public transportation to allow new apartment complexes to rise; creating new programs to fund maintenance or repair of older homes; and establishing a regional hub to assist prospective or first-time homebuyers.

Drawing on census, mortgage and other data, the framework lays out current and future housing needs in Richmond, Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico, as well as Ashland.

Most of the existing housing stock that is reserved for people earning less than the region’s median income is more than 50 years old, researchers found. With those homes nearing the end of their useful life, residents who rely on them face uncertainty.

As rents have climbed, so, too, have home values. Across the region, the average sales price rose by more than 20% between 2009 and 2018, according to the framework. In Richmond, where home prices have grown faster than anywhere else in the region, that figure is 56%.

The surge in sales prices is fueling racial disparities in homeownership and wealth. In 2017, 26 homes were bought by white households per day on average. That same year, an average of six homes per day were purchased by African American buyers. For Latino buyers, the daily average was two.