Read time: Charts: 2 minutes. Full 50-page report: 60 minutes or longer.
Also on Arcata1.com: US Congress Research reports: Housing Trends & Policy Considerations
Housing Issues in the 118th Congress
At the September 12, 2023, Planning Commission meeting, Commissioner Joel Yodowitz introduced the Congressional Research Reports on housing, and read a passage from the report “U.S. Housing Supply: Recent Trends and Policy Considerations.” For that article, click here.
These reports deal with housing issues on a national basis. Here in Arcata, we have our own variety of issues — but the larger national (“macro”) issues affect us as well. The known issues in Arcata that are regularly discussed include:
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- Expansion of Cal Poly Humboldt: Students, teachers, administrators, and support personnel. See the article: Cal Poly Humboldt – Expansion from May, 2022
- “Multiplier” jobs from Cal Poly Humboldt’s expansion. It is estimated that for every increase of 100 jobs in education jobs, there will be an increase of an additional 180 to 230 jobs. See the above article.
- “Climate Change Refugees” — As daily temperatures, fires, destructive weather events, and other climate-related threats all increase, there is a migration of people to the relative safety and pleasant climate of the Northcoast.
- Remote workers — The period of Covid supported the option of office workers working from home. Living in cities, close to corporate offices, is no longer as necessary. People can live where they choose.
- It’s great to live here! We know that, and other people are finding out.
In California, there are over 30 million adults (over 18 years old) living to the south of Arcata. If just a one-hundredth of a percent — .01%, or 1/10,000 — were to move to Arcata over the course of, say, five or ten years, that’s 3,000 people. Some of those people would want to buy homes, and some would want to rent. In a city with about 8,000 housing units (single homes, ADUs, and apartments), that’s a big pressure on Arcata’s housing stock.
“Housing Issues in the 118th Congress” is a 50-page report from July, 2023. Some charts from this report were extracted for your easy viewing: Median rent prices, Median sale prices, Mortgage rates, Consumer price index for Shelter expenses.
The full 50-page report, including the table of contents, is below, after the charts.
Housing Issues in the 118th Congress
July 14, 2023 50 pages
Note: What is shown below is a text copy from the original document, made for this website. It is included here only so that the contents of the original document can be searchable. (The PDF files are not searchable with this website’s search facilities.)
These document may contain typographical errors and other departures from the original. The PDF displayed above is accurate. The text below is printed here for indexing purposes, so that each word can be indexed and included in the search.
Contents
Introduction …………………………………….. 1
Housing Market Conditions ……… 1
Housing Costs…………… 2
Sales Prices for Single-Family Homes……………… 2
Mortgage Interest Rates………………… 3
Asking Rents…………….. 4
Housing Cost Burdens……………. 5
Housing Supply…………………………….. 6
Inventory of Single-Family Homes for Sale…………….. 6
Rental Vacancy Rates…………………. 7
Housing Construction ……………………………. 7
Housing and the Broader Economy ……………………………11
Selected Current Issues…………………. 12
Housing Affordability …………… 12
Appropriations for Housing Programs………. 13
Housing Tax Proposals………………. 14
Competitive Grants for Land Use and Zoning Reform (CDBG-PRO)……….. 15
Rural Housing Programs………. 16
Rural Housing and the Farm Bill…….. 16
Rural Housing Program Reform Proposals………. 17
Status of COVID-19 Supplemental Funding for Housing ………. 17
Treasury Programs………… 18
HUD Programs ……………. 18
Homelessness…………………….. 19
Housing Quality ………….. 20
Implementation of Housing-Related Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act……… 22
Fair Housing…………………. 23
Disparate Impact Discrimination ……… 25
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing………. 27
Military Housing …………. 28
Basic Allowance for Housing ………….. 30
Housing Shortages………….. 30
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Loan Level Price Adjustments ……. 32
Housing and Disaster Response and Recovery ………. 33
FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program (IHP) and HUD’s Community
Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)…… 34
Interaction Between FEMA’s IHP and HUD’s CDBG-DR………… 36
FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)………. 39
Housing and Climate Impacts…………….. 40
Figures
Figure 1. Real (Inflation-Adjusted) Median Sale Prices for New and Existing
Single-Family Homes……….. 3
Figure 2. Mortgage Interest Rates…………. 4
Housing Issues in the 118th Congress
Congressional Research Service
Figure 3. Real (Inflation-Adjusted) Median Asking Rent ………… 5
Figure 4. Homes for Sale, New and Existing …………… 6
Figure 5. Rental Vacancy Rates…………….. 7
Figure 6. Housing Units Started ……….. 9
Figure 7. Housing Units Completed……………. 9
Figure 8. Housing Units under Construction………….. 10
Figure 9. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter in U.S. City Average……….. 12